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CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR 

The  Diamond  Necklace  :  being  the  true  story  of  Marie 
Antoinette  and  the  Cardinal  de  Rohan.  Authorised 
translation  by  H.  Sutherland  Edwards.  With 
Twelve  Illustrations.  1901.  Crown  8vo,  6^. 
London :  John  Macqueen. 

Princes  and  Poisoners :  studies  of  the  Court  of  Louis 
XIV.  Translated  by  George  Maidment.  With 
Two  Illustrations.  Second  edition.  1901.  Pott 
4to,  6s.     London  :  Duckworth  and  Co, 

Legends  of  the  Bastille  :  the  true  story  of  the  Man  in 
the  Iron  Mask.  Translated  by  George  Maidment. 
With  Eight  Illustrations.  1899.  Crown  8vo,  6s. 
London  :  Downey  and  Co. 


Of    THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


MARIE   ANTOINETTE. 


Frontispiece. 


CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

A  .SEQUEL   TO   THE 
STORY   OF   THE   DIAMOND    NECKLACE 

BY 

FRANTZ   FUNCK-BRENTANO 

TRANSLATED  BY 

GEORGE   MAIDMENT 


fVITH  TEN  ILLUSTRATIONS 


JBC 

Of  THC 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


NEW  YORK 

JAMES    POTT   AND   CO. 

1902 


SFUHO 


PREFACE 

Meditating  at  St.  Helena  on  the  events  of 
the  Revolution,  Napoleon  let  his  thoughts 
dwell  on  the  Diamond  Necklace  affair. 
*  Perhaps/  he  said,  *the  death  of  the  queen 
dates  from  that/  Mirabeau  and  Goethe 
thought  the  same,  and  it  is  also  the  con- 
clusion of  the  best  informed  of  modern 
historians  like  M.  Pierre  de  Nolhac.  Their  j 
opinion  has  been  quoted  in  a  former  book, 
Tke  Diamond  Necklace,  devoted  to  the 
origin  and  the  development  of  the  famous 
case.  In  the  following  pages  the  reader 
will  find  an  account  of  the  ulterior  destinies 
of  the  chief  persons  involved  in  the  mys- 
tery; and  he  will  see  by  what  a  chain  of 


214870 


vi  PREFACE 

circumstances  Marie  Antoinette  was  drawn 
to  the  scaffold. 

The  unpublished  documents  of  which 
use  has  been  made  are  very  numerous. 
On  the  majority  of  points  facts  hitherto 
unknown  will  be  met  with.  We  venture  to 
mention  this  only  that  we  may  express  our 
indebtedness  for  a  great  part  of  this  new 
information  to  the  erudition  of  M.  Alfred 
Begis,  Treasurer  and  Keeper  of  the 
Records  of  the  Society  of  Contemporary 
History,  and  Secretary  of  the  Society  of 
Booklovers. 


CONTENTS 


CHAP.  PAGB 

INTRODUCTORY,     I 

I.    CAGLIOSTRO  TO  THE   FRENCH   PEOPLE,            .           .  5 
II.   CAGLIOSTRO    AGAINST     THE     GOVERNOR    OF    THE 

BASTILLE, 14 

ril.   THE  ABSOLUTE  MONARCHY, 22 

IV.   GIUSEPPE  BALSAMO, 3I 

V.   A  VISIT  OF  GOETHE  TO   PALERMO,          ...  53 

VI.   TOUSSAINT  DE  BEAUSIRE, 68 

VII.    THE  COUNTESS  DE  LA  MOTTE  AT  THE  SALPiiTRIERE,  93 

VIII.   THE  ESCAPE, I06 

IX.    MADAME    DE    LA    MOTTE   WRITES    THE   STORY   OF 

HER   LIFE, IIS' 

X.   THE  PAMPHLETS, I44 

XI.    REVOLUTIONARY   MOVEMENTS,        .           .           .           .  151 

XII.    THE  END  OF  JEANNE   DE  VALOIS,            .           .           .  165 

XIII.    THE   HALL  OF  VENUS I74 

XIV.   THE  DEATH   OF  THE  QUEEN,           ....  184 

XV.    THE  CARDINAL   DE  ROHAN   IN   HIS   DIOCESE,           .  23O 

XVI.    LAMOTTE-COLLIER, 24O 

XVII.    LEGENDS, 279 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 
PORTRAIT  OF  MARIE  ANTOINETTE,  BY  KUCHARSKI,      Frontispiece 

PORTRAIT  OF  MADAME  DE  CAGLIOSTRO,       .  .  facing  34 

PORTRAIT    OF    NICOLE    LEGUAY,    OTHERWISE    THE 

BARONNE  D'OLIVA,  BY  PUJOS,  ....,,  76 
THE   KEY   OF   THE  SALPETRIERE   PRISON,  .  .  .         I08 

THE   FLIGHT  FROM   THE  SALPETRIERE,     .  .  .   facing  I08 

MADAME  DE  LA  MOTTE  IN  PEASANT  COSTUME,  .  ,,  112 
THE   *  GRANDE  VISITE    DE    MME    DE    LA    MOTTE    AU 

PERE  DUCHESNE  MALADE,'  .  .,,146 

PORTRAIT  OF  THE  PRINCESSE   DE  LAMBALLE,  .         ,,         I96 

MARIE  ANTOINETTE   IN   MOURNING  GARB,  .  .         ,,        202 

THE  QUEEN  GOING  TO  EXECUTION,  BY  LOUIS  DAVID,        ,,        226 


OF   THE 

UNJVERSITY 

Of 


CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

INTRODUCTORY 

The  curtain  had  fallen  on  the  great  Neck- 
lace act,  which  had  been  agitating  all  Paris 
for  months.  The  famous  Diamond  Neck- 
lace had  been  obtained  from  the  court 
jewellers  by  the  Cardinal  de  Rohan  through 
the  agency  of  the  woman  calling  herself 
the  Countess  de  La  Motte,  on  the  representa- 
tion that  the  Queen  of  France,  Marie 
Antoinette,  had  ordered  it,  and  would  pay 
for  it  in  instalments.  The  instalments 
when  due  were  not  paid,  and  the  jewellers, 
after  showing  themselves  curiously  lax  men 
of  business,  had  made  inquiries  which  had 
resulted  in  the  pricking  of  the  gigantic 
bubble.      The  queen  had    never    had   the 

A 


2         CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

Necklace,  which  the  countess  and  her 
husband  had  broken  up  and  sold  piecemeal. 
The  question  was,  how  far  the  Cardinal  de 
Rohan  was  a  dupe,  how  far  he  was  an 
accomplice.  He  declared  that  the  countess 
had  shown  him  letters  bearing  the  queen's 
signature,  authorising  every  step  he  had 
taken,  and  that  he  believed  the  Necklace 
had  been  ordered  by  the  queen.  He  de- 
clared also  that  the  countess  had  contrived 
a  meeting  between  himself  and  the  queen 
one  night  in  the  grove  of  Venus  at  Ver- 
sailles. As  a  result  of  the  exposure  the 
cardinal  was  arrested,  along  with  the  Count 
and  Countess  de  La  Motte,  the  girl  who 
called  herself  the  Baroness  d'Oliva,  and 
who  was  said  to  have  personated  the  queen, 
and  the  so-called  Count  Cagliostro,  who 
had  been  a  sort  of  familiar  spirit  to  the 
cardinal.  After  the  complicated  process  of 
law,  in  which  interrogatory  and  confronta- 
tion  succeeded   confrontation   and  interro- 


INTRODUCTION  3 

gatory,  and  the  various  accused  persons 
told  their  several  stories,  the  Parlement 
had  at  last  delivered  its  verdict.  The 
signature  of  the  queen  was  declared  a 
forgery.  Cagliostro  and  the  cardinal  were 
acquitted  of  all  complicity  in  the  crime ;  the 
Baroness  d'Oliva  was  acquitted,  with  a  mild 
censure  for  having  allowed  herself  to  be  the 
tool  of  designing  villains ;  and  the  Count  de 
La  Motte  was  sentenced  to  the  galleys  for  life. 
The  protagonist,  the  petite,  vivacious,  extra- 
ordinarily clever  Madame  de  La  Motte,  was 
condemned  to  be  whipped,  naked,  by  the 
public  executioner,  branded  on  the  shoulders 
with  the  letter  V  [voleuse,  robber),  confined 
at  the  Salpetriere  gaol  for  the  rest  of 
her  life,  and  deprived  of  all  her  pro- 
perty. The  sentences  on  the  La  Mottes 
were  severe  enough ;  the  absolute  acquittal 
of  the  cardinal  was  a  great  blow  to  the 
royal  house.  The  king,  Louis  xvi.,  who 
had  acted  throughout  with  astonishing  want 


4         CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

of  foresight  and  lack  of  judgment,  sent  the 
cardinal  to  his  Benedictine  Abbey  of  La 
Chaise- Dieu,  and  exiled  Cagliostro,  who 
departed  with  his  wife  for  England.  La 
Motte  escaped  ;  his  wife  suffered  her  igno- 
minious branding  and  was  incarcerated  in 
the  Conciergerie. 

It  is  with  the  further  fortunes  of  these 
actors,  and  some  of  their  associates,  and 
with  the  circumstances  leading  up  to  the 
death  of  the  queen,  that  the  following  pages 
have  to  do. 

G.  M. 


CAGLIOSTRO  TO  FRENCH  PEOPLE     5 


CAGLIOSTRO   TO   THE   FRENCH    PEOPLE 

Cagliostro  had  no  sooner  left  the  Bastille 
than,  seeing  the  unanimous  movement 
of  sympathy  evoked  by  Nicole  d'Oliva, 
and  always  keenly  alive  to  the  trend  of 
public  opinion,  he  hastened  to  send  the 
young  woman  seven  hundred  crowns.  This 
soon  found  its  way  into  the  Gazettes,  with 
commentaries :  *  This  is  how  the  extra- 
ordinary man  avenges  himself  for  calumni- 
ous reports.  He  is  accused  of  charlatanism, 
and  he  passes  his  life  in  relieving  the  un- 
fortunate! '  In  the  little  lodging  he  occu- 
pied for  a  short  time  at  Passy,  he  received 
*  all  Paris  '  before  he  left — writers,  parlia- 
mentarians, Duval  d'Epremesnil ;  and  when 


6         CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

people  thought  they  ought  to  make  a 
reference  to  his  misfortunes,  he  displayed 
immense  wealth,  saying :  *  I  don't  need 
anybody's  assistance;  don't  pity  me.' 

On  June  13,  he  made  his  preparations 
for  departure,  in  obedience  to  the  lettre 
de  cachet  exiling  him  from  France.  After 
having  gone  to  find  his  wife,  who  had  re- 
tired to  Saint- Denis,  he  arrived  at  Boulogne 
on  the  1 6th,  and  embarked  for  England. 
'The  shores  I  left,'  he  said,  *were  lined 
with  a  crowd  of  citizens  of  all  conditions, 
who  blessed  me,  and  thanked  me  for  the 
good  I  had  done  their  brethren.  They  plied 
me  with  the  most  touching  farewells.  The 
winds  were  already  wafting  me  far  from 
them  ;  I  no  longer  heard  them,  but  I  saw 
them  still,  their  hands  raised  towards  heaven, 
and  I  blessed  them  in  my  turn,  and  cried 
out  again  and  again  as  though  they  could 
hear  me:  ''Farewell,  Frenchmen!  farewell, 
my  children  ;  my  country,  farewell !  "  ' 


CAGLIOSTRO  TO  FRENCH  PEOPLE    7 

On  arriving  in  London,  Cagliostro  issued 
his  celebrated  '  Letter  to  the  French  People/ 
It  is  dated  June  26,  1786. 

'  I  have  been  hunted  from  France,'  ex- 
claims the  prophet ;  *  the  king  has  been 
deceived.  Kings  are  to  be  pitied  for  having 
such  ministers.  I  mean  to  speak  of  the 
Baron  de  Breteuil.  What  have  I  done  to 
this  man  ?  Of  what  does  he  accuse  me  ? 
Of  being  loved  by  the  cardinal,  and  of 
not  deserting  him  ;  of  seeking  the  truth, 
telling  the  truth,  defending  the  truth ;  of 
assisting  suffering  humanity,  by  my  alms, 
my  remedies,  my  counsels.  Those  are  my 
crimes !  He  cannot  bear  that  a  man  in 
irons,  a  stranger  under  the  bolts  of  the 
Bastille,  in  his  power — his,  the  worthy 
minister  of  his  horrible  prison  —  should 
have  raised  his  voice  as  I  have  done,  to 
make  him  known, — him,  and  his  principles, 
his  agents,  his  creatures  ! 

*Well    then,    resolve    me    of    a    doubt. 


8         CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

The  king  has  banished  me  from  his  king- 
dom, but  he  has  not  heard  me.  Is  it  thus 
ythat  all  lettres  de  cachet  are  put  in  force  in 
France?  If  so  it  is,  I  pity  you,  and  the 
more  because  this  Baron  de  Breteuil  will 
^  have  this  dangerous  department.  What ! 
your  persons  and  property  are  at  the  mercy 
of  this  man  ?  By  himself  alone  he  can 
deceive  the  king  with  impunity ;  acting  on 
slanderous  and  never  contradicted  informa- 
tion he  can  issue  and  have  put  into  execu- 
tion, by  men  like  himself,  rigorous  orders 
which  plunge  the  innocent  man'  into  a  cell, 
and  deliver  his  house  over  to  plunder ! 

*  Are  all  state  prisons  like  the  Bastille  ? 
No  one  can  have  any  idea  of  the  horrors 
of  that  place;  cynical  impudence,  odious 
falsehood,  sham  pity,  bitter  irony,  relent- 
less cruelty,  injustice  and  death  are  seated 
there.  A  barbarous  silence  is  the  least  of 
the  crimes  there  committed.  For  six  months 
I  was  within  fifteen  feet  of  my  wife  with- 


CAGLIOSTRO  TO  FRENCH  PEOPLE  9 

out  knowing  it.  Others  have  been  buried 
there  for  thirty  years,  are  reputed  dead,  are 
unhappy  in  not  being  dead,  having,  like 
Mihon  s  damned  souls,  only  so  much  light  in 
their  abyss  as  to  perceive  the  impenetrable 
darkness  that  enwraps  them.  I  said  it  in 
captivity,  and  I  repeat  it  a  free  man  :  there 
is  no  crime  but  is  amply  expiated  by  six 
months  in  the  Bastille.  Some  one  asked 
me  whether  I  should  return  to  France 
supposing  the  prohibitions  laid  on  me  were 
removed.^  Assuredly,  I  replied,  provided 
the  Bastille  became  a  public  promenade ! 

'  You  have  all  that  is  needed  for  happi- 
ness, Frenchmen :  a  fertile  soil,  a  mild 
climate,  kindly  hearts,  charming  gaiety, 
genius,  graces  all  your  own ;  unequalled  in 
the  art  of  pleasing,  unsurpassed  in  the  other 
arts — all  you  want,  my  good  friends,  is  one 
little  thing  :  to  be  sure  of  lying  in  your  own 
beds  when  you  are  irreproachable. 

*To  labour  for  this  happy  revolution  is  a 


10       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

task   worthy    of  your   parlements.       It   is 

only  difficult  to  feeble  souls. 

^  *Yes,  I  declare  to  you,  there  will  reign 

over  you  a  prince  who  will  achieve  glory  in 

the  abolition  of  lettres  de  cachet,  and  the 

convocation    of  your    States-General.     He 

V  will  feel  that  the  abuse  of  power  is  in  the 

long-run   destructive  of  power  itself.     He 

will  not  be  satisfied  with  being  the  first  of 

his  ministers ;  he  will  aim  at  being  the  first 

of  Frenchmen.' 
L 

These  lines,  dated  1786,  are  really  aston- 
ishing. People  speak  sometimes  of  the 
predictions  of  Voltaire  and  Rousseau.  '  We 
are  approaching  a  condition  of  crisis  and  the 
age  of  revolutions,'  wrote  Rousseau.  '  All 
that  I  see  is  sowing  the  seeds  of  a  revolution 
which  will  inevitably  come,'  wrote  Voltaire. 
Stray  utterances  culled  from  a  mass  of 
writings  filling  fifty  and  sixty  volumes.  All 
those  who,   setting  up   to   teach   mankind. 


CAGLIOSTRO  TO  FRENCH  PEOPLE  ii 

find  that  mankind  will  not  be  led  by  their 
wishes,  speak  thus.  Voltaire  and  Rousseau 
were  men  of  letters  who  wrote  admirably 
and  expounded  very  interesting  theories  ; 
but  what  a  vivid,  concrete,  precise  intellect 
Cagliostro  must  have  had,  along  with  an 
intuitive  perception  of  realities,  to  say  to 
the  French  in  1786:  'Within  a  little,  your 
States-General  will  be  convoked,  your 
Bastille  will  become  a  public  promenade, 
and  your  lettres  de  cachet  will  be  abolished/ 

And  we  may  imagine  the  hubbub  made  in 
the  streets  of  Paris  by  hawkers  selling  *  the 
Letter  to  the  French  People,'  running  along 
with  perspiring  faces,  repeating  their  cry, 
*  Here  s  something  new ! '  in  the  gardens 
and  the  caf^s.  The  public  rushed  to  meet 
them.  Their  '  papers '  were  snatched  from 
their  hands. 

Breteuil  at  once  suffered  in  reputation. 
In  vain  he  showed  himself,  in  his  ministerial 
office,    to    be   one    of    the    most    generous 


12       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

spirits  France  has  ever  known,  a  noble 
and  liberal-minded  reformer ;  in  vain  had 
»  he,  by  his  memorable  circular  of  1784, 
which  had  marvellous  results  all  through 
France,  virtually  put  an  end  to  the  regime 
of  lettres  de  cachet ;  in  vain  had  he  decided 
on  the  demolition  of  the  Bastille,  and  from 
that  time  transformed  it  into  a  prison  for 
ordinary  criminals,  closed  the  castle  of 
Vincennes  and  the  horrible  tower  of  Caen, 
opened  the  gates  of  Bicetre  to  Latude, 
liberated  at  one  stroke  three-fourths  of 
the  prisoners  incarcerated  in  the  houses  of 
correction  ;  in  vain  had  he,  by  a  general 
order  of  October  31,  1785,  set  free  all 
those  who  were  detained  in  virtue  of  a 
family  lettre  de  cachet — and  it  is  well 
known  that  imprisonments  of  this  kind 
were  very  numerous ;  in  vain  had  he  for- 
bidden the  local  magistrates  to  authorise 
any  incarceration  whatever  save  after  a 
regular  trial ;    in  vain   did  he  draw  up  on 


CAGLIOSTRO  TO  FRENCH  PEOPLE  13 

October  6,  1787,  his  instructions  on  the 
treatment  of  madmen  in  the  hospitals,  and 
attempted  to  reaHse,  with  unequalled  activity 
and  energy,  the  new  ideas  of  progress  and 
liberty :  Cagliostro  dealt  him  a  blow  in 
public  opinion  from  which  he  never  re- 
covered. And  thus  later,  when  the  hour 
of  revolution  struck,  the  pamphleteers  and 
orators  of  the  public  gardens  had  no 
difficulty  in  persuading  the  people  that 
Breteuil  wanted  to  cut  their  throats.  And 
the  spread  of  the  news  that  he  had  re- 
turned to  power  was  the  signal  for  the  . 
insurrection. 


14       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 


II 

CAGLIOSTRO  AGAINST  THE  GOVERNOR 
OF  THE  BASTILLE 

Meanwhile  Cagliostro  had  begun  his 
famous  action  against  the  Marquis  de 
Launey,  Governor  of  the  Bastille,  and 
against  the  younger  Chesnon,  the  Com- 
missary of  the  ,  f  hatelet  who  had  been 
ordered  to  search  his  house  when  he  had 
been  taken  prisoner.  On  May  29,  when 
Cagliostro  had  not  yet  been  tried  and  was 
still  in  duress,  Maitre  Thilorier  had  issued  a 
petition,  *as  well  written,'  observes  Hardy 
the  bookseller,  *as  the  memorial  previously 
so  much  acclaimed  by  the  people,'  and  con- 
taining the  '  striking  demonstration '  of  the 
following  facts  :  (i)  *  By  the  fault  of  Com- 


LITIGATION  15 

missary  Chesnon  when  making  a  search  in 
the  house  of  CagHostro,  then  forcing  open 
the  desks,  opening  all  the  cupboards  and 
wardrobes,  tearing  and  upsetting  the  goods 
of  the  count  and  his  wife — hats,  feathers, 
dresses,  linen — throwing  them  about  in 
promiscuous  heaps,  then  neglecting  to  put 
everything  under  seal  before  leaving,  more 
than  100,000  livres  worth  of  goods  had 
been  ruined  or  left  to  be  plundered  : 
(2)  the  Marquis  de  Launey,  Governor  of 
the  Bastille,  had  kept  in  his  own  possession, 
refusing  to  deliver  them  up  to  the  plaintiff 
or  his  wife,  diamonds  and  jewels  of  very 
considerable  value.' 

CagHostro  gives  details.  The  underlings 
of  the  commissary  seized  on  whatever  took 
their  fancy.  *  The  police-officer  had  the 
audacity  to  take  possession,  in  the  presence 
of  the  plaintiff,  of  balms,  drjugs,  elixirs,  to 
Mhe  value  of  two  hundred  louis,  without 
any  opposition  from  the  commissary.     From 


i6       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

my  desk  disappeared  :  ( i )  fifteen  rolls  of  fifty 
pistoles  each,  sealed  with  my  seal ;  (2)  1233 
Venetian  and  Roman  sequins ;  (3)  a  roll 
of  twenty  -  four  Spanish  double  pistoles 
sealed  with  my  seal ;  (4)  forty-seven  bank- 
notes of  1000  livres  each.  In  addition, 
there  were  papers  of  the  greatest  im- 
portance in  my  green  portfolio.  They  are 
lost,  and  the  resulting  damage  to  me  is 
more  than  50,000  livres.' 

Not  satisfied  with  these  depredations,  the 
commissary  had  executed  his  orders  in  the 
most  vexatious  manner,  jostling  and  roughly 
handling  the  Count  de  Cagliostro  and  his 
wife  in  the  street,  to  the  scandal  of  the 
passers-by.  On  this  ground  an  indemnity  of 
50,000  livres  was  claimed.  The  total  amount 
due  by  the  government  of  the  king  or  his 
agents  was  200,000  livres,  half  of  which 
Cagliostro  waived,  with  characteristic  great- 
ness of  soul,  for  the  purchase  of  bread  for 
the  poor  prisoners  at  the  Chatelet. 


LITIGATION  17 

His  claim  was  presented  on  May  29, 
before  the  Diamond  Necklace  case  was  con- 
cluded. On  June  21,  Cagliostro,  through 
his  lawyers  in  Paris,  sent  from  London  to 
the  Marquis  de  Launey  and  Chesnon  a 
writ  to  appear  at  the  Chatelet. 

Cagliostro's  statement  of  claim  ends  with 
the  following  words :  '  Doubtless  I  shall 
not  be  required  to  establish  these  facts  by 
corroborative  evidence.  A  citizen  does  not 
call  two  citizens  every  day  to  testify  to  the 
state  of  his  cash-box.  I  should  regard 
this  precaution  as  not  only  useless,  but 
insulting  to  the  nation  whose  hospitality 
I  am  enjoying.  Will  it  be  said  that  the 
facts  I  assert  are  improbable?  All  those 
who  know  me  can  say  whether,  since  I 
have  been  in  France,  I  have  openly  spent 
less  than  100,000  livres  a  year.  Is  it 
surprising,  then,  that  a  man  who  is  not 
accustomed  to  count  his  money  should 
have   a   years   income   in   his   possession? 

B 


i8       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

And  I  undertake  to  affirm  on  oath  the 
accuracy  of  the  statement  I  have  already 
certified.  This,  without  doubt,  is  all  that 
justice  has  a  right  to  demand.  No  one 
will  imagine  that  for  the  sum  of  100,000 
livres  the  Count  de  Cagliostro  will  con- 
sent to  perjure  himself  in  the  eyes  of  all 
Europe.' 

*  Everybody  was  struck,'  says  Hardy, 
'with  the  clearness,  precision,  and  energy 
of  the  count's  plea.  The  document  in 
which  the  suppliant's  rights  seemed  as  well 
established  as  ingeniously  argued,  met  with 
the  same  reception  from  the  public  as  former 
documents.' 

A  second  statement  followed.  *  It  pre- 
sents the  facts,'  says  Hardy,  *in  a  manner 
exactly  calculated  to  stir  men's  minds  and 
to  interest  citizens  of  all  conditions.'  Let 
us  quote  the  peroration  : — 

*  Frenchmen,  a  nation  truly  generous, 
truly  hospitable,  I  shall  never  forget  either 


LITIGATION  19 

the  touching  interest  you  have  taken  in 
my  fate,  or  the  gentle  tears  your  trans- 
ports have  made  me  shed.  Calumny  and 
persecution  have  dogged  my  steps.  All 
the  torture  that  human  heart  could  suffer, 
mine  had  already  experienced.  A  single 
day  of  glory  and  happiness  has  recompensed 
me  for  all  my  long  sufferings.'  (Cagliostro 
is  alluding  to  his  triumph  after  being 
acquitted  by  the  Parlement.)  *  Invited, 
desired,  regretted  everywhere,  I  had 
chosen  for  my  habitation  the  land  wherein 
you  dwell ;  I  had  done  there  all  the 
good  that  my  fortune  and  talents  per- 
mitted me  to  do.  Strasburg,  Lyons, 
Paris,  you  all  bear  witness  of  me  to  the 
universe !  You  will  say  if  ever  I  offended 
the  least  of  your  inhabitants !  You  will 
say  if  religion,  good  government,  and  law 
were  not  always  sacred  to  me  ;  and  yet 
the  voice  of  my  enemies  has  prevailed. 
They  have   deceived  a  king ;    a   letter  of 


20       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

exile,  and  indefinite  exile,  is  my  reward. 
I  am  driven  from  France !  Dwellers  in 
that  happy  country,  people  of  amiable 
manners  and  tender  hearts,  receive  the 
adieux  of  an  unfortunate  man  worthy  per- 
haps of  your  esteem  and  your  regrets. 

*  He  has  gone,  but  his  heart  remains 
with  you.  Whatever  region  he  inhabits, 
believe  that  he  will  constantly  show  him- 
self the  friend  of  the  French  name ;  happy, 
if  the  woes  he  experienced  in  your  country 
fall  on  himself  alone  ! ' 

*  The  public,'  says  Hardy,  *  devoured 
the  Count  de  Cagliostro's  memorial,  which 
had  been  printed  in  sufficient  quantities  to 
satisfy  their  avidity.' 

Now    it    happened    that    at    this    time 

Latude,   released  from    prison,    was   filling 

France  with  tales  of  his  long  martyrdom ; 

,  and  Linguet's  pamphlet  against  the  Bastille, 

'    with    that    of    Mirabeau    against   arbitrary 


LITIGATION  21 

orders,  were  creating  a  formidable  stir. 
Nowadays  we  know  what  exaggerations 
and  lies  these  writings  contained  ;  but  the 
populace  in  their  unhappy  state  of  dread 
eagerly  swallowed  them.  The  Marquis  de 
Launey  was  governor  of  the  Bastille,  and 
the  Commissary  Chesnon  was  the  officer 
responsible  for  carrying  into  effect  the 
lettres  de  cachet.  '  We  remember,'  said 
Chesnon  in  his  answer  to  Cagliostro's 
accusations,  *  the  terrible  effect  his  memorial 
made  among  the  public.  It  had  the  same 
effect  throughout  Europe.  The  retailing  of 
it  brought  sedition  nearer.'  Cagliostro  for 
his  part,  in  a  letter  to  the  English  people 
issued  shortly  afterwards,  remarked  with 
pride :  *  My  indictment  against  Chesnon 
and  de  Launey  appeared.  It  made  on  all 
minds  an  impression  that  still  endures,  and 
will  always  endure  whatever  may  happen, 
because  the  truth  is  ineffaceable.' 


22       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 


III 

THE    ABSOLUTE    MONARCHY 

The  king  relegated  the  matter  to  the 
Council  of  Despatches,  and  appointed  a 
commission  consisting  of  La  Michodiere, 
Abbe  of  Radonvilliers,  Vidaud  de  Latour 
and  Lambert,  Councillors  of  State.  The 
public  raised  new  protests.  Why  not  the 
Chatelet,  to  which  Cagliostro  had  appealed  ? 
Why  not  the  regular  tribunals?  They 
were  afraid  of  the  light  of  day,  and  wanted 
closed  doors !  Hardy  explains  this  attitude : 
'  The  fact  is  that  de  Launey  and  Chesnon 
were  absolutely  identified  with  what  was 
called  the  administration,  an  expression  so 
important  that  woe  betide  any  one  who 
had  to  combat  it ! ' 


THE  ABSOLUTE  MONARCHY       23 

A  thousand  rumours  ran  through  the 
city.  Some  said  that  Cagliostro  was  re- 
turning to  France  to  defend  his  cause,  at 
the  invitation  of  the  king,  who  had  offered 
him  a  safe-conduct.  *  No,'  repUed  others  : 
'the  Sieur  de  Cagliostro  has  taken  the 
fixed  determination  not  to  trust  to  the  fine 
declarations  of  the  French  ministry,  of 
which  he  has  once  been  the  dupe  in  a 
way  that  he  will  remember  all  his  life, 
however  long  that  may  be — and  never- 
more to  return  to  the  bosom  of  a  nation 
which  he  loves,  but  whose  despotic  govern- 
ment he  abhors.'  This  party  affirmed  that 
the  government,  to  hush  the  matter  up, 
had  restored  the  greater  part  of  his  goods 
and  money ;  and  the  former  party  that 
Cagliostro  had  just  withdrawn  his  petition, 
*  refusing  to  continue  his  case  before  the 
Council  of  Despatches,  which  he  did  not  ' 
regard  as  a  legal  tribunal,  but  merely  as  a 
royal  commission.' 


24       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

Launey  and  Chesnon  filed  dignified 
answers,  showing  the  regularity  of  their  pro- 
ceedings. The  ofificial  reports  were  duly 
drawn  up,  proving  that  all  the  customary 
formalities  had  been  observed.  Madame 
de  Cagliostro  had  signed  a  receipt  for  all 
the  effects  she  had  deposited  in  the  Bastille. 
Launey  added  :  '  The  Sieur  de  Cagliostro 
demands  the  restoration  of  a  sum  of  100,000 
livres  found  in  his  desk.  Justice  will  pay 
the  less  credence  to  his  statement,  when 
it  sees  from  the  documents  deposited  in 
the  Bastille,  and  written  in  his  own  hand- 
writing, that  he  was  constantly  occupied 
in  imploring  charity  and  generosity  from 
his  friends ;  that  he  was  continually  levying 
contributions  upon  them,  and  that  when  he 
spoke  of  his  desk,  nothing  was  further  from 
his  thoughts  than  considerable  sums  and 
precious  objects.' 

Chesnon  spoke  more  strongly.     *  It  is  a 
sad  thing  for  decency — I  will  say  more,  for 


THE  ABSOLUTE  MONARCHY       25 

the  public  security,  that  calumny  is  so  easily 
diffused ;  it  is  a  sad  thing  that  a  mere 
signature,  most  often  borrowed  by  a  writer 
who  would  not  dare  acknowledge  what  he 
has  written,  should  without  difficulty  be- 
come the  passport  of  a  false  libel :  copies 
of  it  are  multiplied  in  proportion  as  these 
bold  pens  have  spread  malice,  spite,  and 
gall ;  curiosity  snatches  at  them,  cupidity 
puts  them  up  for  sale,  and  the  documents 
which  the  law  only  allows  to  be  printed  for 
the  information  of  the  judges  have  become 
for  some  time  past  a  shameful  object  of 
trade  and  speculation.  The  blow  falls 
unforeseen,  and  though  the  wound  made 
by  calumny  will  be  healed,  the  scar  will 
remain.' 

On    July    14,    1787,    the    Committee    of 
Councillors  of  State  reported  to  the  Council 
of  Despatches  in  favour  of  the  rejection  of  J 
Cagliostro's  plea.    Thus  the  governor  of  the 
Bastille  and  the  Chdtelet  commissary  were 


26       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

completely  exonerated.  The  scandal  of  the 
sale  of  documents  during  the  course  of  the 
Necklace  case  had,  however,  been  so  great, 
and  the  torrent  of  calumnies  and  slanders 
spread  by  Madame  de  La  Motte  and  Cagli- 
ostro  so  atrocious,  that  Vidaud  de  Latour, 
Director-General  of  Bookselling,  along 
with  the  Keeper  of  the  Seals,  Hue  de 
Miromesnil,  determined  to  put  vigorously 
in  force  by  a  decree  of  September  17, 
^1787,  the  prohibitions  against  selling  'any 
memoir,  pleading,  consultation,  abstract, 
reply,  or  other  documents  drawn  up  in 
cases  pending  before  the  courts.'  This 
decision  was  at  once  notified  to  the  book- 
sellers and  printers  of  Paris,  by  a  circular 
from  the  syndics  and  aldermen  in  charge 
of  the  community. 

Those  who  in  our  time  vilify  with  such 
ready  eloquence  the  coercive  measures 
adopted  towards  the  press  under  the  ancien 


THE  ABSOLUTE  MONARCHY       27 

rdgime  do  not  know,  or  perhaps  forget,  in 
what  conditions  calumny  and  slander  were 
then  spread. 

In  our  time  the  press  is  its  own  con- 
servator and  physician.  Suppose  some  one 
were  nowadays  to  put  forth  against  the 
Government  one  of  those  innumerable 
calumnies  which  in  the  last  year  of  the 
ancien  rdgime  were  daily  displayed  in  news- 
letters, gazettes,  handbills,  and  various 
brochures  and  pamphlets ;  an  official  agency 
would  instantly  circulate  a  correction  among 
the  journals,  and  next  day  all  France  would 
know  what  the  Ministry  declared  to  be  the 
truth.  But  at  the  period  with  which  we 
are  dealing,  the  press  agencies  did  not 
exist.  Calumny  displayed  itself  in  all 
security,  without  fear  of  a  contradiction, 
and  certain  of  finding  credence.  On  the 
Bastille  and  the  prisoners,  the  lettres  de 
cachet,  the  control  of  the  finances,  the  king 
and   queen,    the   morals   of  the   court,  the 


28       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

clergy,  the  nobility,  and  soon  on  the  Parle- 
ment  itself,  on  the  heads  of  Parisian 
industry,  on  all  that  represented  a  tradi- 
tion or  an  authority,  a  respect  or  a  belief, 
the  most  unlikely  and  absurd  stories  were 
disseminated ;  they  found  attentive  and 
hospitable  ears,  and  mouths  clever  enough 
to  carry  them  into  the  minds  of  the  most 
intelligent,  and  these  repeated  them  in 
their  turn,  strengthening  them  with  their 
authority.  This  was  the  prelude  to  the 
Revolution. 

'Calumny,'  Don  Bazile-^  was  saying  at 
this  very  moment, — 'there  is  no  piece  of 
dull  malice,  no  horror,  no  absurd  tale,  but 
people  get  adopted  if  they  take  the  trouble. 
First  a  gentle  rumour,  skimming  the  soil 
like  a  swallow  before  the  storm.  Pianissimo 
— the  poisoned  arrow  murmurs  and  whizzes 
along,  dropping  its  venom  as  it  flies. 
Some  mouth  or  other  receives  it,  and  then 

^  In  Beaumarchais'  Marriage  of  Figaro. 


THE  ABSOLUTE  MONARCHY   29 

piano,  piano,  cleverly  drops  it  into  your  ear. 
The  mischief  is  done;  the  seed  springs  up, 
the  plant  grows  and  spreads  insidiously, 
and,  rinforzando,  it  plays  the  very  devil 
from  mouth  to  mouth ;  then,  all  at  once, 
goodness  knows  how,  you  see  calumny 
rearing  its  head,  hissing,  swelling  itself 
out,  getting  bigger  as  you  watch.  It  darts 
on,  extends  its  flight,  whirls  round,  envelops 
everything,  drags  men  aft-er  it,  bursts  out 
like  thunder,  and  becomes  a  general  outcry, 
a  public  crescendo^  a  universal  chorus  of 
hate  and  proscription.  Who  in  the  world 
could  resist  it  ? ' 

A  Cagliostro  attacked  a  minister  or  his 
agents  :  the  sale  of  his  precious  productions 
almost  provoked  riots.  Yet  the  king  had, 
in  the  drawers  of  the  lieutenant-general  of 
police,  all  the  facts  necessary  to  undeceive 
the  public.  But  how  could  he  communicate 
them  to  the  people  }  To-day  we  have  in-__ 
numerable  agencies  besides  the  active  pens 


30       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

of  journalists ;  in  those  days  there  was 
nothing,  nothing  but  the  confidence  of  the 
people  in  the  king,  their  good  sense,  their 
attachment  to  the  crown.  A  fine  thing 
to  be  king ! 


GIUSEPPE   BALSAMO  31 


IV 

GIUSEPPE   BALSAMO 

If  only  Breteuil  had  been  able  to  bring  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  public  the  collection 
of  documents  made  by  commissary  Fontaine, 
Cagliostro  would  doubtless  not  have  found 
such  ardent  admirers.  Fontaine  had  dis- 
covered— and  the  documents  collected  later 
on  by  the  Inquisition  at  Rome  confirmed 
his  researches  in  all  particulars — that  the 
illustrious  prophet,  who  had  once  con- 
versed with  Christ  beneath  the  shade  of 
the  olives,  was  born  at  Palermo  on  June  8, 
1 743.  H  is  real  name  was  Giuseppe  Balsamo,  ^ 
and  he  was  the  son  of  Pietro  Balsamo  and 
of  Felice  Braconieri  his  wife.  His  father, 
of  Jewish  extraction,  was  a  bankrupt  trades-^ 


32       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

man  of  Palermo,  and  died  at  the  age  of 
forty-five.  His  widowed  mother  had  lived 
with  her  son  Giuseppe  and  a  daughter  named 
Joanna  Maria.  In  1758,  when  fifteen 
years  old,  Giuseppe  Balsamo  had  donned  the 
costume  of  the  Brothers  of  the  Misericordia, 
whose  mission  it  was  to  attend  the  sick; 
but  he  had  remained  only  a  short  time  in 
their  order,  picking  up  with  them,  however, 
the  elements  of  pharmacy. 

In  Sicily,  no  less  than  in  France,  the 
quest  of  treasure  had  been  all  the  rage  a 
century  before.  Young  Balsamo  became 
a  treasure-seeker.  He  was  a  clever  youth, 
and  got  a  rich  goldsmith  of  Palermo,  one 
Marano,  to  believe  that  there  lay  in  a 
grotto  in  the  heart  of  the  country  an 
immense  treasure,  of  which  he  would  make 
him  the  owner.  Marano  gave  him  two 
hundred  ounces  of  gold.  A  meeting  at 
the  spot  was  arranged.  It  was  a  fine 
moonlight  night.      Balsamo  began  his   in- 


GIUSEPPE  BALSAMO  33 

cantations.  All  at  once  a  band  of  demons, 
clothed  in  deep  black,  appeared,  fell  on 
Marano,  and  gave  him  a  sound  thrashing. 
The  good  man  was  cudgelled  and  robbed. 
As  ill-luck  would  have  it,  Balsamo  could  not 
keep  this  remarkable  stroke  of  business  to 
himself;  the  result  was  that  the  goldsmith 
learned  how  he  had  been  tricked,  and  hired 
ruffians  to  assassinate  the  young  magician, 
who  in  all  haste  fled  to  Calabria  with  two 
of  his  associates,  a  priest  and  a  servant. 
But  these  two  had  so  well  learnt  their  part 
of  spirit-rappers  that,  once  in  Calabria,  they 
belaboured  Balsamo  and  took  Marano's 
money  from  him.  And  Balsamo,  thus  in 
his  turn  robbed  and  beaten,  reached  Rome 
in  1760  utterly  destitute.  ®  \^> 

The  wonders  of  the  Eternal  City  acted  "^ 
as  an  inspiration.     He  learnt  drawing,  and 
very   soon   acquired   a   surprising    facility. 
His  was  a  copyist's  talent,  for  he  had  none 
of  the    gifts   of  the    creative   artist.      He 

c 


34       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

copied  on  old  paper,  with  special  inks,  the 
etchings  of  Rembrandt,  so  cleverly  that  it 
was  impossible  to  distinguish  the  original 
from  the  reproduction.  He  imitated  hand- 
writings with  amazing  success,  and  attained 
a  real  perfection  in  the  art  of  forging  wills, 
which  compelled  him  more  than  once  to 
decamp  hurriedly  from  the  place  he  had 
.  settled  in.  He  made  pen-drawings  for  great 
Roman  lords,  and  for  Cardinal  Orsini,  who 
honoured  him  with  his  protection;  but  his 
fortune  remained  only  moderate.  Love 
consoled  him  for  his  poverty.  In  Pellegrini 
Street,  in  the  workshop  of  a  batadore — that 
is,  a  smelter  of  copper  for  carriage  orna- 
ments— he  was  touched  by  the  sweet  and 
tender  grace  of  a  girl  named  Lorenza 
Feliciani.  Lorenza's  eyes  seemed  like  the 
transparent  shadows  of  deep  water,  her 
waving  tresses  had  the  colour  of  ripe  corn, 
and  her  lips  were  gleaming  red,  like  cherries 
in  June. 


MADAME   DE   CAGLIOSTRO. 


Of    THE 

UNIVERSITY 

Of 


GIUSEPPE  BALSAMO  35 

She  was  just  entering  her  fifteenth  year. 

And  there  were  meetings  at  the  house 
of  an  old  NeapoHtan  woman  hard  by  the 
smelter's  workshop.  Balsamo  was  wonder- 
fully eloquent,  and  the  child  drank  in  his 
words,  gazing  at  him  with  her  big  limpid 
eyes.  The  father  thought  the  girl  too 
young ;  but  the  child  declared  that  she 
would  marry  Balsamo  or  die.  Her  father 
gave  way,  and  the  marriage  was  celebrated 
in  April  1769,  at  the  parish  church  of  San 
Salvador  in  Campo. 

Balsamo's  drawings  did  not  provide  a 
sufficient  income  for  the  young  couple.  A 
Sicilian  marquis  persuaded  him  to  go  to 
Germany,  promising  to  obtain  for  him  a 
captain  s  commission  in  the  service  of  the 
King  of  Prussia,  and  to  employ  him  in 
the  meantime  as  his  Italian  secretary. 
Donna  Lorenza,  as  we  know  from  contem- 
porary evidence,  was  'one  of  the  beauties 
of  Europe.'      Her  complexion  was  of  un- 


36       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

surpassable  purity,  her  expression  was  full 
of  grace  and  sweetness.  Balsamo  and  his 
wife  went,  then,  to  Loretto,  thence  to  Berg 
in  the  state  of  Venice,  where  they  got  into 
hot  water  with  the  police  in  regard  to  some 
letters  that  the  Sicilian  marquis  had  forged 
in  conjunction  with  Balsamo. 

Goethe  tells  the  story  of  the  incident. 
The  forged  documents  were  intended  to 
be  used  in  an  important  lawsuit  concerning 
the  succession  to  an  estate  in  which  the 
Sicilian  was  interested.  Balsamo  was  flung 
into  prison.  Boiling  with  rage,  the  marquis 
hastened  to  the  president  of  the  court,  in 
whose  anteroom  he  found  the  advocate 
of  the  opposite  party.  He  began  a  dis- 
cussion with  him,  seized  him  by  the  throat, 
knocked  him  down,  and  stamped  on  him. 
The  noise  brought  the  president  from  his 
study.  He  was  a  weak  man,  says  Goethe, 
easily  influenced  by  stronger  minds.  The 
advocate  was  reduced  to  a  state  of  terror 


GIUSEPPE  BALSAMO  37 

by  the  ill-treatment  he  had  received.  The 
upshot  was  that  Balsamo  was  set  at  liberty, 
without  any  formalities,  says  Goethe,  with- 
out even  any  mention  being  made  of  his 
liberation  in  the  register  of  the  jail.  But 
it  was  necessary  that  he  should  seek  other 
climes.  After  selling  their  effects,  Balsamo 
and  his  wife  arrived  at  Milan  almost 
destitute,  and  proceeded  to  Genoa,  whence 
they  resolved  to  go  and  seek  their  fortune 
in  Spain. 

Casanova  met  the  young  couple  in  1770, 
as  they  passed  through  Aix  in  Provence. 
They  were  dressed  as  pilgrims.  '  They 
could  not  but  be  people  of  high  birth,'  he 
says,  'since  on  arriving  at  the  town  they 
distributed  alms  widely.  The  female  pil- 
grim was,  it  was  said,  charming,  and  quite 
young ;  but  she  was  tired  out,  and  went  to 
bed  at  once.'  ^ 

Next  day,  Casanova  solicited  the  honour 
of  an   audience.      He  was  lodging  in  the 


38       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

same  inn.  *We  found  the  female  pilgrim 
seated  in  a  chair,  looking  like  a  person 
exhausted  with  fatigue,  and  interesting  by 
reason  of  her  youth  and  beauty,  singularly 
heightened  by  a  touch  of  melancholy,  and 
by  a  crucifix  of  yellow  metal,  six  inches 
long,  which  she  held  in  her  hands.  Her 
companion,  who  was  arranging  shells  on  his 
cloak  of  black  baize,  made  no  movement ; 
he  appeared  to  tell  us,  by  the  looks  he 
cast  on  his  wife,  that  we  were  to  attend  to 
her  alone.' 

*We  are  going  on  foot,'  said  Lorenza, 
Miving  on  charity,  the  better  to  obtain  the 
mercy  of  God,  whom  I  have  so  often 
offended.  Though  I  ask  only  a  sou  in 
charity,  people  always  give  me  pieces  of 
silver  and  even  gold,  so  that  on  arriving 
at  a  town  we  have  to  distribute  to  the  poor 
all  that  remains  to  us,  in  order  not  to 
commit  the  sin  of  losing  confidence  in 
Eternal  Providence.' 


GIUSEPPE  BALSAMO  39 

*  This  young  woman,'  adds  Casanova,  '  far 
from  flaunting  the  airs  of  libertinage,  had  all 
the  outward  bearing  of  virtue.  Invited  to 
write  her  name  on  a  lottery  ticket,  she 
excused  herself,  saying  that  at  Rome  girls 
were  not  taught  to  write  if  they  were  to 
be  bred  up  to  virtue  and  honour.  Every 
one  laughed  at  this  excuse  but  myself,  and 
I  felt  certain  then  that  she  belonged  to  the 
lowest  classes  of  the  people.' 

They  came  at  length  to  Barcelona,  where 
Balsamo  worked  for  the  viceroy.  But  after 
four  months  they  were  obliged  to  leave  the 
town  *  because  the  viceroy,'  says  Lorenza, 
*  had  taken  a  fancy  for  me,  wanted  to  amuse 
himself  with  me,  and  when  I  repulsed  him, 
conceived  much  ill-humour  against  us  and 
wanted  to  vex  us  and  to  have  me  arrested, 
under  the  pretext  that  I  was  not  married.' 
They  went  on  to  Madrid,  where  they  spent 
the  year  1771,  Balsamo  working  for  the 
Duke    of   Alva.      They    there    made    the 


40       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

acquaintance  of  another  Sicilian  who  also 
played  them  tricks,  which  compelled  them 
to  depart  for  Lisbon  ;  but  the  young  woman 
being  unable  to  endure  the  climate  of  that 
city,  they  betook  themselves  to  London 
in  1772. 

In  London,  Balsamo  set  up  as  a  painter. 
He  joined  a  certain  Pergolesi,  a  designer 
of  Compton  Street,  but  was  not  long  in 
falling  out  with  him.  He  lodged  in  the 
same  street  as  a  turner.  *  He  hadn't  a 
crown  of  his  own,'  wrote  a  French  officer 
who  knew  him  in  those  days,  'got  drunk 
constantly,  beat  his  wife,  and  had  the  style 
and  the  manners  of  a  clown.' 

At  this  period  Balsamo  made  the  acquaint- 
ance of  a  third  Sicilian  who  went  by  the 
name  of  the  'Marquis  of  Vivona.'  They 
were  both  received  into  the  austere  fellow- 
ship of  a  congregation  of  quakers.  At  the 
fine  eyes  of  Lorenza,  the  austerity  of  one 
of    these    quakers    melted    away    like    the 


GIUSEPPE  BALSAMO  41 

morning  haze  in  the  sunbeam.  It  was 
agreed  between  Balsamo  and  Vivona  that 
Lorenza  should  arrange  a  meeting  with 
the  quaker.  He  appeared  at  the  appointed 
hour,  and  the  conversation  grew  so  warm 
that  the  quaker  had  stripped  off  his  hat 
and  wig  and  coat — when  Lorenza  gave  a 
scream,  the  door  flew  open,  and  the  out- 
raged husband  burst  in,  with  Vivona  as  a 
witness :  and  the  quaker  had  permission  to 
retire,  after  signing  a  note  for  a  hundred 
pounds  sterling. 

With  all  his  hundred  pounds,  Balsamo 
was  not  long  after  thrown  into  prison  for 
debt.  An  English  lord,  whom  Lorenza 
calls  by  the  extraordinary  name  of  Sir 
Dehels,  procured  his  liberation,  and  took 
him  and  his  wife  to  a  country  house  of  his 
near  Canterbury,  where  Balsamo  was  to 
decorate  the  walls  with  frescoes.  The 
frescoes  were  so  original,  and  so  amazing, 
that  Balsamo  thought  it  prudent  to  decamp, 


42       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

and  went  with  his  wife  to  Paris  to  seek  a 
fortune.  But  before  taking  the  road,  he 
ennobled  himself,  becoming  the  Marquis 
of  Balsamo. 

We  are  now  at  the  close  of  the  year 
1772.  The  journey  to  Paris  has  been 
related  by  the  fair  Lorenza  herself.  *  On 
the  passage  to  France,'  she  says,  '  we  made 
acquaintance  with  M.  Duplessis,  the  steward 
of  the  Marquis  de  Prie,  who  showed  us  both 
all  kinds  of  civilities.  And  when  M.  Bal- 
samo showed  him  some  of  his  works,  he 
appeared  surprised.  "You  will  make  your 
fortune  in  Paris,"  he  said.  **  I  am  an  advo- 
cate at  the  Parlement,  and  know  many 
lords ;  don't  distress  yourself,  I  '11  present 
you  to  the  king.  You  won't  have  to  go 
on  your  travels  again.  Your  wife  is  very 
pleasant,  very  pretty,  very  charming.  I  '11 
do  all  I  can  to  set  you  up  in  Paris." ' 

Arrived  at  Calais,  Lorenza  confessed  to 
M.   Duplessis,  who  was  showing  her  more 


GIUSEPPE  BALSAMO  43 

and  more  attention,  that  she  would  have 
to  remain  at  the  port,  having  no  money  to 
continue  her  journey. 

*  Whereupon  M.  Duplessis  made  me  all 
sorts  of  friendly  promises,  offering  to  drive 
me  in  his  chaise  to  Paris. 

*  "And  my  husband?  "  I  said. 

'''Can't  he  wait  a  little  at  Calais?  He 
will  come  on  later.'" 

Lorenza,  who  knew  the  ropes,  indignantly 
rejected  this  amazing  proposition.  At  last 
it  was  agreed  that  she  should  join  M. 
Duplessis  in  a  postchaise  he  had  hired, 
while  her  husband  followed  on  horseback : 
fresh  air  and  exercise  could  not  fail  to  do 
him  good. 

Delightful  journey !  The  Marquis  of 
Balsamo  admired  nature  in  her  autumn 
glory.  The  woods  had  put  on  their  dress 
of  russet  brown.  The  birches  and  aspens 
had  foliage  of  citron  yellow,  standing  out 
vividly  against  the  reddish   brown  of  the 


44       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

sturdier  oaks.  On  the  horizon,  where  fine 
white  transparent  vapours  rose  thinly  into 
the  sky,  the  woods  were  lost  in  the  autumn 
mist.  But,  snug  in  the  rolling  postchaise, 
the  windows  closed — for  the  air  was  already 
cold,  and  the  young  woman  had  a  delicate 
throat — the  donna  Lorenza  sat  by  M. 
Duplessis'  side ;  while  Balsamo,  now  riding 
ahead,  now  behind  or  level  with  the 
carriage,  galloped  on  in  superb  joyousness. 
He  would  sing  snatches  of  Italian  songs 
in  his  powerful  voice,  the  sonorous  notes 
swelling  far  into  the  echoless  distance  :  and 
meanwhile,  inside  the  closed  carriage,  M. 
Duplessis  was  whispering  to  Lorenza:  'You 
have  stolen  my  heart  away.  I  love  you. 
You  are  young  and  beautiful ;  your  skin  is 
sweet  and  exhales  a  penetrating  fragrance. 
My  happiness  is  in  your  keeping.  I  make 
myself  responsible  for  your  fortune.  I 
will  never  abandon  you.  When  we  are 
in  Paris,    I   will  get  a  place   for   Balsamo. 


GIUSEPPE  BALSAMO  45 

I  will  assure  his  happiness  also.  I  will 
give  him  a  hundred  louis  to  take  a  trip 
to  Rome.' 

*  Thus  tormented  against  my  will,'  con- 
tinues Lorenza,  *  I  was  several  times  tempted 
to  stop  and  leave  M.  Duplessis,  in  order  to 
escape  the  solicitations  and  even  the  actual 
violence  he  showed  me  in  the  carriage,  as 
evidence  of  his  love ;  but  knowing  the 
irritable  and  fiery  nature  of  my  husband, 
I  feared  to  inform  him  of  what  was  going 
on  by  refusing  to  continue  the  journey,  and 
we  reached  Paris  in  the  morning.' 

The  same  day,  Duplessis  lodged  his 
travelling  companions  in  the  mansion  of 
the  Marquise  de  Prie,  and  in  the  evening, 
with  the  consent  of  Balsamo,  who  went  to 
bed  tired  out  with  his  journey,  he  took  his 
wife  to  the  opera. 

*  These  attentions,'  says  Lorenza,  *  lasted 
for  six  weeks  or  two  months,  and  I  cannot 
refrain   from   declaring   that   the   generous 


46       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

treatment  of  M.  Duplessis,  the  tenderness 
he  showed  for  me,  his  amorous  expressions, 
his  promises,  made  me  conceive  some  kind- 
ness for  him,  all  the  more  because  my 
husband  sometimes  vexed  me  with  his  ill- 
temper  and  jealousy.' 

Duplessis  frequently  invited  the  Balsamos 
to  dinner.  One  Sunday  evening,  after  des- 
sert, Balsamo  went  off  to  pay  a  visit  to  one 
Mercuroz,  an  apothecary,  leaving  his  wife 
and  his  host  tete-a-tete  \  'because,'  notes 
Lorenza,  'my  husband,  though  jealous,  had 
confidence  in  me.' 

Balsamo  returned  on  the  stroke  of  mid- 
night. He  had  spent  a  delightful  evening 
with  his  friend  the  apothecary.  The  wine 
had  been  wine  of  Samos,  which  had  put  the 
apothecary  into  an  excellent  temper ;  on 
this  evening,  no  doubt,  Balsamo  had  been 
the  happiest  of  the  three. 

*  From  that  time,'  continues  Lorenza, 
'  M.   Duplessis  showed  me,  every  time  he 


GIUSEPPE  BALSAMO  47 

met  me  alone,  that  he  was  jealous  of  my 
husband.  He  gave  me  to  understand  that 
I  must  separate  from  him,  which  wives  in 
France  were  at  liberty  to  do.' 

The  result  was  that  apartments  were 
taken  for  Lorenza  by  M.  Duplessis  with 
a  woman  named  Theron,  in  the  Rue  Saint 
Honore.  But  this  did  not  at  all  suit 
Balsamo's  book.  His  confidence  in  his 
wife  did  not  reconcile  him  to  being  deprived 
of  the  advantages  which  his  authority  as 
husband,  going  at  the  right  moment  on  a 
visit  to  the  apothecary,  was  capable  of 
obtaining  for  him.  In  January  1773  ^^ 
laid  an  information  before  the  lieutenant-"' 
general  of  police,  and  on  February  2  the 
pretty  Lorenza  was  ignominiously  locked 
up  at  Sainte-Pelagie,  along  with  many 
other  women,  all  learning  there  in  what  way 
ladies  in  France  were  free  to  separate  from 
their  husbands. 

In  1775,  Balsamo  turns   up   at   Naples, 


48       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

living  in  lordly  style.  His  name  is  now 
the  Marquis  Pellegrino.  It  was  in  Pelle- 
grini Street,  it  will  be  remembered,  that 
he  had  met  Lorenza  six  years  before. 
He  had  a  valet  named  Laroca,  '  who  had 
made  himself  famous  by  his  adventures, 
and  though  really  a  perruquier,  had  himself 
played  the  marquis  at  Turin.'  The  Marquis 
Pellegrino  taught  how  to  make  gold,  how 
to  change  hemp  into  silk,  and  how  to 
solidify  mercury.  From  Naples  he  went 
with  his  wife  to  Malta,  whence  he  returned 
to  Naples  with  the  chevalier  of  Acquino. 
^  The  year  1776  is  the  date  of  his  second 
journey  to  London,  where  Balsamo  took 
for  the  first  time  the  name,  since  become 
^  so  famous,  of  the  Count  de  Cagliostro. 
This  name  was  not  absolutely  imaginary. 
It  was  the  name  of  one  of  his  maternal 
great-uncles,  originally  of  the  little  town  of 
La  Noava,  eight  leagues  from  Messina, 
who  had  been  the  factor  of  the  prince  of 


GIUSEPPE  BALSAMO  49 

Villafranca.  Cagliostro  then  set  up  as  an 
astrologer,  and  claimed  to  have  succeeded, 
with  the  assistance  of  the  stars,  in  reducing 
to  a  certainty  the  chances  of  winning  in 
lotteries.  He  had  a  lawsuit  with  a  lady  of 
Chelsea  named  Fry,  who  accused  him  of 
purloining  a  necklace,  and  got  him  shut  up  in 
the  King's  Bench  prison.  Necklaces  were 
evidently  fated  to  bring  him  misfortune. 
Cagliostro  said  that  the  lady  had  given 
him  the  jewellery  in  reward  for  the  accuracy 
of  his  forecasts  in  lotteries,  but  the  lady 
declared  that  she  had  intrusted  it  to  him 
because  he  had  said  that  he  could  turn 
the  small  diamonds  into  large  ones.  The 
astrologer  was  ordered  to  give  back  the 
necklace.  After  a  stay  of  six  months  in 
London,  he  took  his  departure.  He  left 
in  his  rooms  a  large  portmanteau,  filled, 
according  to  his  own  statement,  with  costly 
possessions.     It  was  empty. 

In   1779,   Cagliostro  made   his   fantastic 

D 


50       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

journey  to  Russia  and  Poland.  The 
details  of  his  marvellous  performances  and 
swindling  tricks  assume  such  proportions 
that  it  is  impossible  to  credit  them. 

Early  in  1 780  the  prophet  arrived  at  Stras- 
burg,  clothed,  as  it  were,  in  his  mysterious 
reputation.  He  distributed  drugs  to  the 
people  who  crowded  into  his  house.  At 
Strasburg,  where  he  became  acquainted 
with  the  Cardinal  de  Rohan,  he  remained 
three  years  and  a  half  In  the  middle 
of  1783,  he  travelled  to  Rome,  Naples, 
Florence,  Antibes.  On  December  i,  1783, 
he  set  up  as  a  physician  at  Bordeaux.  His 
cures  were  regarded  as  miraculous.  The 
police  were  obliged  to  undertake  the  pro- 
tection of  his  house,  to  avoid  disturbances 
among  the  crowds  who  thronged  to  it.  On 
his  consulting  days,  eight  or  ten  soldiers 
v/  mounted  guard  at  the  door  and  on  the 
staircase.  On  November  i,  1784,  he  is  at 
Lyons,   busied  there  more  especially  with 


GIUSEPPE  BALSAMO  51 

the  organisation  of  masonic  lodges.  The 
mother  lodge  was  founded  at  Lyons,  and 
in  a  few  months  daughter  lodges  were 
swarming  throughout  France.  On  January 
30,  1785,  Cagliostro  arrived  in  Paris:  the 
negotiations  for  the  Necklace  had  com- 
menced. 

Whence  did  he  draw  his  resources  at 
this  period  ?  On  the  one  hand,  from  his 
Egyptian  lodges,  organised  almost  every- 
where, each  of  which  paid  subscriptions 
contributing  to  his  subsistence ;  on  the 
other  hand,  from  the  Cardinal  de  Rohan.  . 

*  I  remember,'  says  a  manuscript  note 
signed  Rheinbold,  written  on  a  copy  of 
Cagliostro  s  Letter  to  the  English  People, 
once  in  the  possession  of  Xavier  Marmier — 

*  I  remember  that  before  the  Necklace  case, 
when  the  Cardinal  de  Rohan  made  his  last 
journey  to  Strasburg,  he  sent  him  by  one 
of  his  people  a  bag  of  1200  to  1800  livres, 
and  that  Cagliostro,  to  give  a  gratuity  to 


52       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

the  messenger,  borrowed  twelve  livres  from 
his  host's  cook,  so  destitute  was  he  of 
money.'  His  wealth  was  thus  more  ap- 
parent than  real.  He  cut  a  dash  by  a 
prodigious  display  of  diamonds  and  jewels, 
— which  were  false. 


A  VISIT  OF  GOETHE  TO  PALERMO    53 


V 

A   VISIT   OF   GOETHE   TO    PALERMO 

As  we  have  seen,  Cagliostro,  exiled  from 
France  after  his  acquittal  by  the  Parlement, 
embarked  for  England  on  June  16. 

While  our  hero  was  basking  for  the  third 
time  on  the  banks  of  Thames,  Goethe,  then 
travelling  in  Italy,  came  upon  his  family  at 
Palermo.  *  A  little  before  the  end  of  my 
journey,'  notes  the  great  writer  under  date 
April  13,  1787,  *an  interesting  adventure 
happened  to  me.  During  my  stay  at 
Palermo,  I  had  often  heard  Cagliostro 
talked  about  at  table,  and  stories  told  of 
him.  The  Palermites  were  all  agreed  on 
one  point,  to  wit,  that  the  mysterious 
personage   was    no    other    than   a  certain 


54       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

Giuseppe  Balsamo,  who,  after  more  than 
one  piece  of  scoundrelism,  had  been  driven 
from  the  town.  He  was  recognised  in  the 
published  portraits.  I  learnt  thus  that  a 
jurist  of  Palermo,  at  the  request  of  the 
French  Ministry,  had  made  inquiries  into 
the  origin  of  this  man,  who  had  had  the 
audacity,  in  the  course  of  a  grave  and 
momentous  trial,  to  retail  the  most  absurd 
fables  in  the  tace  of  all  France — one  may 
say,  of  the  whole  world. 

'  I  asked  to  be  introduced  to  the  man  of 
law,  and  was  presented  to  him.  He  showed 
me  the  genealogical  tree,  drawn  out  by  him, 
of  the  family  to  which  Cagliostro  belonged, 
and  the  notes  and  documents  which  had 
assisted  him  to  compile  a  memoir,  which  he 
had  just  sent  to  France.'  After  perusing 
these,  Goethe  expressed  the  desire  to  be 
presented  to  Balsamo's  mother  and  sister, 
who  were  living  in  the  town.  '  That  will 
be  difficult,'  replied   the  lawyer,    'for  they 


A  VISIT  OF  GOETHE  TO  PALERMO    55 

are    poor   people   and  live  a   very    retired 
life  ;    a   visitor    would    scare    them.'      But 
Goethe   insisted,    and    at    last   the    lawyer 
offered  the  assistance  of  his  secretary,  who 
knew  the  family   personally.      Goethe  saw 
the  secretary,  and  it  was  arranged  that  the 
visitor    should     pass    as     an    Englishman 
bringing    from    London,    where    Cagliostro 
had  taken  refuge,  news  of  him  to  his  family. 
The  house  inhabited  by  the  Balsamos  was 
hidden  away  in  the  corner  of  an  alley,  not 
far    from   the    principal   street,    il  Casaro, 
Goethe,    accompanied    by    the     secretary, 
climbed    a    wretched    staircase,    which   led 
straight    into    the    kitchen.      A    woman    of 
middle    height,     apparently     very     robust, 
broad-chested    without    being    stout,     was 
washing  dishes.     She  was  neatly   dressed, 
and,  when  she  perceived  her  visitors,  raised 
the  corner  of  her   apron  so  as  to  conceal 
its  dirty  side.     Her    eyes    beamed   a   glad 
welcome,  and  addressing  the  secretary,  she 


56       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

said,  *  Signer  Giovanni,  do  you  bring  good 
news  ?  Have  you  succeeded  ? '  She 
alluded  to  some  trifling  business  in  which 
she  was  interested,  and  which  the  secretary 
had  undertaken  to  manage  for  her. 

*  I  haven't  yet  succeeded,'  was  the  reply, 
*  but  here  is  a  friend  of  your  brother's,  who 
can  tell  you  how  he  is  just  now.' 

'  You  know  my  brother  ? '  she  asked, 
turning  to  Goethe. 

'All  Europe  knows  him,'  replied  the 
visitor,  'and  no  doubt  you  will  be  pleased 
to  hear  that  he  is  for  the  present  in  perfect 
safety,  and  his  health  is  excellent.' 

'Come  in,'  she  said,  'I  will  be  with  you 
immediately.' 

The  visitors  went  into  a  large  and  lofty 
room,  which  seemed  to  serve  as  lodging  for 
the  entire  family.  There  was  one  window. 
The  walls,  still  bearing  traces  of  the  paint 
that  formerly  covered  them,  were  adorned 
with  a  number  of  religious  pictures,  portraits 


A  VISIT  OF  GOETHE  TO  PALERMO    57 

of  saints,  all  black  in  their  gilt  frames. 
Two  large  curtainless  beds  stood  on  one  side; 
opposite  them,  a  small  brown  cupboard 
like  a  writing-desk.  The  straw-chairs 
had  had  their  backs  gilded,  and  the  gilt 
still  shone  here  and  there.  The  flooring 
had  given  way  in  several  places.  But 
everything  was  spotlessly  clean.  The 
visitors  approached  the  family  grouped 
around  the  window  on  the  further  side  of 
the  room. 

While  the  secretary  was  bawling  into  the 
ear  of  Cagliostro's  old  mother,  who  was  very 
deaf,  an  explanation  of  the  stranger's  visit, 
Goethe  was  taking  stock  of  the  persons  and 
things  around  him.  A  girl  of  sixteen, 
comely,  but  marked  with  smallpox,  was 
leaning  at  the  window ;  near  her  a  lad  was 
stooping,  his  face  not  less  pitted.  On  the 
other  side  of  the  window,  extended  on  a 
long  chair,  was  a  person  who  seemed  over- 
come with  languor. 


58       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

*We  sat  down,' says  Goethe.  'The  old 
woman  addressed  a  few  questions  to  me 
which  I  got  my  companion  to  translate,  for 
she  expressed  herself  in  the  pure  Sicilian 
dialect.  While  she  was  speaking,  I  watched 
the  old  woman  with  pleasure.  She  was  of 
middle  height,  but  well  formed.  Her 
features  were  regular,  and  age  had  respected 
their  pure  and  firm  outlines.  Her  expression 
had  that  serenity  which  is  usually  found  in 
deaf  people.  The  tone  of  her  voice  was 
low  and  pleasant.'  Goethe  told  her  that  her 
son  had  just  been  acquitted  by  the  French 
courts,  and  was  then  in  England,  where  he 
had  been  well  received.  '  Her  replies  were 
exclamations  of  joy,  mingled  with  pious 
words  that  were  very  touching.  And  as 
she  then  spoke  more  slowly,  I  could  almost 
understand  her.'  Meanwhile  her  daughter, 
Cagliostro's  sister,  the  woman  they  had 
found  washing  the  dishes,  had  re-entered. 
She  sat  down  beside  the  secretary,  getting 


A  VISIT  OF  GOETHE  TO  PALERMO    59 

him  to  repeat  what  the  stranger  said.  She 
had  put  on  a  clean  apron,  and  carefully 
arranged  her  hair  in  a  net.  She  seemed  of 
a  happy  disposition,  lively,  and  in  robust 
health.  I  should  take  her  age  to  be  forty. 
Her  blue  and  cheerful  eyes  gave  a  quick 
wide-awake  glance  around,  without  the 
least  perceptible  shade  of  mistrust.  Seated, 
she  appeared  taller  than  when  she  was 
standing.  She  sat  on  her  chair,  her  body 
bent  slightly  forward,  and  her  hands  on  her 
knees.  '  She  closely  resembled  Cagliostro,' 
adds  Goethe,  'as  he  is  represented  in  the 
engravings  that  are  so  common.  She 
questioned  me  on  my  plans  for  making 
excursions  in  Sicily,  and  told  me  that  I 
must  certainly  return  to  Palermo  to  join 
them  in  the  festival  of  St.  Rosalia.' 

Goethe  resumed  his  conversation  with 
the  mother,  while  the  daughter  talked  to  the 
secretary.  The  latter  said  that  her  brother 
still  owed  her  for  purchases  she  had  made 


6o       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

for  him  before  he  left  Palermo.  As  he  was 
now  in  possession  of  such  great  treasure,  he 
must  be  able  to  return  the  money  ;  and  she 
asked  the  stranger  to  take  charge  of  a  letter 
for  him.  For  her  situation  was  precarious. 
She  was  a  widow  with  three  children  ;  one 
daughter  was  being  brought  up  in  a  con- 
vent, another  daughter  was  at  home,  and  a 
son  was  at  present  at  school.  She  had  her 
mother  also  with  her,  and  was  also  saddled 
with  the  poor  sick  woman  lying  on  the  long 
chair.  And  in  spite  of  all  her  industry,  she 
found  it  very  difficult  to  meet  such  obliga- 
tions. *  To  be  sure,'  she  said  in  conclusion, 
'  God  will  not  let  my  efforts  go  unrewarded, 
but  the  burden  is  too  heavy,  and  I  have 
borne  it  too  long.' 

The  young  people  took  part  in  the  con- 
versation, which  had  become  animated. 
Goethe  heard  the  old  woman  ask  her 
daughter  :  '  Does  he  follow  our  holy 
religion  ? '       And     the     younger     woman 


A  VISIT  OF  GOETHE  TO  PALERMO    6i 

tactfully  replied  :  '  The  stranger  seems  well 
disposed  to  us,  and  it  would  hardly  be  polite 
to  ask  him  that  question  so  soon.' 

And  when  the  good  people  learnt  that 
Goethe  was  soon  to  leave  Palermo,  they 
became  pressing  in  their  entreaties  that  he 
would  return  and  spend  with  them  the  feast 
of  St.  Rosalia,  the  patron  saint  of  the  town. 
He  would  see  in  Palermo  on  that  day 
unequalled  splendours.  The  visitor  took 
leave,  with  the  promise  to  come  back  next 
day  for  the  letter  which  Cagliostro's  sister 
was  to  write  to  her  brother.  *  And  I  came 
away,'  says  Goethe,  'profoundly  impressed 
with  this  pious  and  quiet  family.' 

Next  day,  after  dinner,  he  returned  alone. 
His  appearance  provoked  surprise.  The 
letter  was  not  yet  finished.  *  Besides,' 
added  the  kindly  folk,  *  several  of  our 
relatives  wish  to  make  your  acquaintance.' 
But  Goethe  assured  them  that  he  could  not 
defer  his  departure  for  more  than  one  day. 


62       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

At  this  moment  entered  the  son,  whom  the 
visitors  had  not  seen  on  the  former  occasion. 
He  held  in  his  hand  the  letter  for  Cagliostro, 
which  he  had  just  fetched  from  the  public 
scribe,  whom  it  was  the  custom  of  the 
country  to  employ  in  such  matters.  The 
lad  had  a  quiet  manner,  marked  with 
reserve  and  melancholy.  He  spoke  of  his 
uncle,  his  wealth,  his  large  expenditure, 
adding  sadly :  *  Why  does  he  desert  his 
family  thus  ?  It  would  be  our  greatest  joy 
to  see  him  back  for  a  little  at  Palermo, 
showing  some  interest  in  us.  And  people 
say  that  he  everywhere  disowns  us,  posing 
as  a  lord  of  illustrious  birth.' 

The  girl  came  in.  She  had  lost  the 
timidity  of  the  previous  evening,  spoke  of 
her  uncle,  gave  the  visitor  many  messages 
for  him,  and  pressed  Goethe  to  return  to 
Palermo  for  the  festival  of  St.  Rosalia. 
The  mother  was  as  pressing  as  her  children. 
*  Though  it  is  not  the  proper  thing  for  me 


A  VISIT  OF  GOETHE  TO  PALERMO    63 

to  entertain  strange  men,'  she  said,  'since 
I  have  a  daughter  growing  up  and  we 
have  good  reasons  for  guarding  against 
scandal  as  well  as  actual  peril,  I  must 
say  that  you  will  always  be  very  wel- 
come among  us  when  you  return  to  the 
town.' 

*  Yes,  indeed  ! '  cried  the  young  people  : 
*  we  will  take  Signor  everywhere  during  the 
festival,  and  show  him  everything.  We  '11 
sit  in  the  best  places  for  seeing  and  admir- 
ing the  procession.  How  delighted  Signor 
will  be  when  he  sees  the  great  car,  and 
especially  the  illuminations  ! ' 

Meanwhile  the  old  woman  had  finished 
reading  the  letter  for  Cagliostro.  She 
handed  it  to  Goethe,  saying :  '  Tell  my  son 
how  glad  I  was  to  have  news  of  him ;  tell 
him  that  I  press  him  to  my  heart ' — and  the 
good  creature  extended  her  arms  and  folded 
them  across  her  bosom.  *  Every  day  I 
pray  God  and  the  Blessed  Virgin  for  him. 


64       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

I  send  my  blessing  to  him  and  his  wife,  and 
have  only  one  desire — to  see  him  once  more 
before  my  death,  with  these  eyes  which 
have  shed  so  many  tears  for  him.' 

In  reporting  these  words  Goethe  remarks 
that  they  were  rendered  doubly  impressive 
by  the  peculiar  grace  of  the  Italian  tongue 
and  the  vivacity  of  the  Sicilian  dialect. 
*  And  I  left  these  good  folk,'  he  adds,  'with 
a  full  heart.  All  hands  were  stretched 
towards  me,  and  as  I  went  down  the  stairs, 
the  children  rushed  to  the  balcony  running 
along  in  front  of  the  window  on  the  street. 
Thence  they  still  called  out  to  me,  with 
joyous  salutations,  not  to  forget  to  come 
back.  I  reached  the  corner  of  the  street, 
and  for  the  last  time  saw  them  waving  their 
hands  to  me.' 

Goethe,  who  never  saw  the  Balsamo 
family  again,  had  an  idea  of  sending  them, 
before  he  left  Palermo,  the  money  owed  by 
Cagliostro,  justifying  the  gift  by   alleging 


A  VISIT  OF  GOETHE  TO  PALERMO   65 

that  the  debtor  would  doubtless  reimburse 
him  on  his  return  to  London.  But  on  ex- 
amining his  purse,  he  found  that  his  funds 
were  running  low;  and  remembering  that  he 
had  arranged  to  penetrate  into  the  interior 
of  Sicily,  where  the  communications  were 
very  difficult,  he  was  afraid  of  leaving  him- 
self penniless. 

One  wonders  whether  the  poor  good 
people,  who  put  so  much  faith  in  the  fortune 
of  their  absent  relative,  ever  learnt  the 
sequel  of  his  adventures.  Cagliostro  fled 
from  London  in  April  1787,  driven  away  by 
his  scandalous  squabbles  with  the  Courrier 
de  l' Europe,  which  was  published  there. 
We  can  trace  him  to  Basle,  to  Bienne  in 
Switzerland,  where  he  lived  on  a  pension 
given  him  by  one  Sarrazin ;  thence  to 
Aix  in  Savoy,  Turin,  Genoa,  Verona,  and 
finally  to  Rome,  where  he  was  arrested  on 
December  27,  1789,  by  the  sbirri  of  the  J 
Holy   Office.     He    had    just    addressed   a 

E 


66       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

petition  to  the  National  Assembly  asking  to 
be  allowed  to  return  to  France.  Thrown 
Hnto  the  fortress  of  St.  Angelo,  he  was  tried 
as  a  freemason  and  condemned  to  death. 
His  penalty  was  commuted  by  the  Pope  to 
perpetual  imprisonment.  While  his  wife, 
the  pretty  Donna  Lorenza,  was  shut  up  in 
the  convent  of  St.  Apollinia,  he  himself  was 
incarcerated  in  the  castle  of  Leone  in  the 
duchy  of  Urbino,  where  he  died  on  October 

U^'  ^795- 

Such  an  end  makes  us  indulgent  towards 
his  extravagances  and  even  his  impostures. 
It  is  melancholy  to  think  of  these  priests 
throwing  a  man  into  a  lifelong  dungeon 
simply  because  his  beliefs  differed  from 
theirs. 

At  the  same  period  in  France,  women, 
children,  and  old  people  were  guillotined, 
though  no  crime  could  be  charged  against 

\  them  except  the  most  beautiful  of  virtues, 
loyalty  to  their  sentiments.    Priests  in  Rome, 


A  VISIT  OF  GOETHE  TO  PALERMO    67 

\  Jacobins  in  Paris,  were  men  of  the  same 
stamp.  History  unites  them  in  one  common 
anathema. 

And  CagHostro's  end  may  be  regretted, 
not  merely  in  the  name  of  tolerance  and 
freedom,  our  supreme  faith,  but  even  for 
the  sake  of  the  Revolution.  The  role  of 
revolutionary  alchemist  would  have  been 
wonderfully  interesting.  At  that  period, 
when  a  man  was  only  valued  in  France 
according  to  his  eloquence  or  his  antics, 
Cagliostro  would  have  stood  forth  in  the 
front  rank,  and  his  buffooneries  would  have 
formed  pleasant  interludes  in  the  sombre 
and  bloody  monotony  of  crimes  and  horrors. 


68       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 


VI 

TOUSSAINT    DE   BEAUSIRE 

He  belonged  to  an  old  burgher  family  of 
Paris,  of  some  mark  in  their  day,  one  of  the 
streets  being  named  after  them  in  1538  and 
retaining  the  name  to  the  present  time. 
His  great-grandfather  had  been  one  of 
the  capable  architects  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  and  academician  in  1718.  His 
grandfather,  Jean  Baptiste  Augustin,  who 
constructed  the  sewers  from  Menilmontant 
to  the  Seine,  organised  the  fetes  in  honour 
of  Louis  XV.  in  1744,  and  was  elected  a 
member  of  the  Academy  of  Architecture. 
This  man's  son,  another  Jean  Baptiste, 
had  no  inclination  for  the  arts,  and  it 
was  he   who  was  the  father  of  the   Jean 


TOUSSAINT  DE  BEAUSIRE  69 

Baptiste    Toussaint  who  espoused    Nicole 
Leguay. 

Toussaint  was  born  on  November  6, 
1 76 1,  in  the  parish  of  St.  Cosmo,  to  Jean 
Baptiste  de  Beausire,  royal  lieutenant  at  the 
Salthouse,  and  Jeanne  F61icit6  Lamoureux 
de  La  Genetiere.  In  1762  he  unhappily  lost 
his  father,  who  was  then  residing  in  the 
Rue  des  Francs- Bourgeois  ;  and  he  lost  his 
mother  in  1771.  Bereft  of  both  parents  by 
the  age  of  ten,  he  was  placed  by  his  uncle 
and  guardian,  M.  Bordenave,  professor  at 
the  Royal  Academy  of  Surgery  and  member 
of  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  at  the  College 
de  Justice,  whence  he  passed  to  the  College 
de  la  Marche  on  July  11,  1772.  Beausire 
had  very  little  taste  for  study,  and  turned 
his  classrooms  into  a  bear-garden.  On 
March  3,  1775,  he  was  locked  up  at  Saint- 
Lazare  for  stealing  sixty  livres  from  his 
teacher's  drawer.  After  a  confinement  of 
nearly  two  years  he  was  sent  back  to  the 


70       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

College  de  la  Marche.  There  he  was 
supposed  to  study  physics  and  law,  to  fit 
him  for  a  procurator  s  place  at  the  Chatelet ; 
but  on  June  27,  1777,  the  Abbe  Desfeux, 
director  of  the  college,  announced  that  on 
the  preceding  Sunday,  between  ten  and 
eleven  in  the  morning,  young  Beausire  had 
absconded,  in  company  with  his  cousin  La 
Genetiere,  and  taken  refuge  within  the 
precincts  of  the  Temple.  He  had  carried 
off  the  greater  part  of  his  effects,  not  to 
mention  the  watch  of  one  of  his  companions. 
When  he  had  come  to  his  last  sou,  the 
young  fellow  returned  like  the  prodigal  son 
to  his  guardian,  who  took  him  back  to  the 
College  de  la  Marche ;  but  the  authorities 
refused  to  receive  him  again. 

Bordenave,  tired  of  the  misconduct  of  his 
ward  and  hopeless  of  any  improvement, 
asked  to  be  relieved  of  his  office.  He 
became  'honorary  guardian,'  the  active 
guardianship  being  intrusted  to  one  Michel 


TOUSSAINT  DE  BEAUSIRE  71 

Francois  Bluteau,  a  citizen  of  Paris,  whose 
specialty  was  to  undertake  such  duties  for 
a  consideration. 

We  are  now  at  the  year  1780.  Beausire 
was  then  placed  with  a  certain  Genevois, 
for  a  course  of  training  for  the  military  pro- 
fession. A  family  meeting  fixed  his  allow- 
ance at  4800  livres.  The  fortune  left  by 
his  father  was  considerable  for  that  time, 
and  Beausire  himself  had  at  this  date  an 
income  of  nearly  30,000  livres.  But  in 
May  1 78 1,  the  debts  he  had  contracted 
amounted  to  as  much  as  95,000  francs.  He 
assumed  the  title  of  count  or  chevalier,  posed 
as  a  gentleman  of  the  Prince  of  Conde's 
household,  and  swindled  the  tradesmen  who 
supplied  him  with  goods  and  jewels.  But 
as  Beausire  was  a  very  odd,  amusing, 
pleasant  fellow,  a  relative  named  Madame 
Destouches  gave  him  a  home,  and  began 
to  take  steps  to  secure  his  entrance  as  a 
volunteer  into   the  navy.      But   the  future 


72       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

sailor  soon  had  enough  of  the  good  lady, 
and  returned  to  his  quarters  in  the  Temple. 
He  had  a  furnished  lodging  at  the  'Two 
Crowns.'  To  obtain  money  for  his  neces- 
sities, he  had  put  most  of  his  clothes  in 
pawn,  and  ordered  new  ones  for  which  he 
omitted  to  pay.  He  incurred  debts  of  honour 
also,  which  obtained  for  him  the  honour  of 
being  arrested  by  order  of  the  Marshals 
of  France  and  incarcerated  in  the  prisons 
of  the  Abbaye  Saint-Germain.  We  shall 
see  what  an  incredible  number  of  houses 
of  detention  Beausire  went  through  in  the 
course  of  his  career.  In  comparison  with 
him,  Latude  was  a  mere  amateur.  He  was 
released  after  four  months  in  jail,  his  family 
having  paid  668  livres  for  him.  Ten  days 
had  barely  elapsed  when  he  again  took  his 
watch  to  the  pawnshop,  engaged  a  servant, 
borrowed  his  watch  under  the  pretext  that 
his  own  was  mending,  and  carried  that 
also  to  the  pawnbroker's. 


TOUSSAINT  DE  BEAUSIRE         73 

On  the  Quai  Pelletier  there  was  a  jeweller 
named  Bourdillat,  who  had  some  gold  rings 
and  earrings  that  took  Beausire's  fancy. 

'  Ah,  Master  Bourdillat,  if  you  only  knew 
how  charming  Manon  is  ! ' 

*  I  quite  believe  you,  Monsieur  le  Cheva- 
lier.' 

But  as  the  chevalier  had  no  money,  he 
gave  a  bill  payable  on  February  i.  On 
January  24  he  came  back,  with  one  of  the 
earrings  broken,  and  as  Manon  was  not 
only  charming  but  '  deucedly  impatient ' — 

'  Oh,  they  are  all  like  that.  Monsieur  le 
Chevalier ! ' 

So  Beausire  selected  another  pair  of  ear- 
rings, worth  about  fifty-eight  livres,  not 
paying  for  them,  however,  and  came  back 
in  a  few  days  for  the  one  that  had  been 
repaired.  Still  he  did  not  pay,  and  the 
bill  being  dishonoured  on  February  i, 
Bourdillat  prosecuted  him  for  swindling. 

In   March    1782,    Beausire  went  to   live 


74       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

at  Senlls  with  his  brother-in-law,  Maitre 
Leclerc-Duport,  who  had  succeeded  Bor- 
denave  as  honorary  guardian.  '  At  the 
end  of  three  months/  wrote  Duport  to  the 
Provost  of  Paris,  'after  having  borrowed 
right  and  left  and  got  jewellery  from  trades- 
men on  credit,  Beausire  absconded  on  July 
1 5,  taking  with  him  everything  he  could  lay 
hands  on  that  could  be  turned  into  money 
in  the  capital.' 

Fresh  debts  of  honour  brought  Beausire 
again  before  the  marshals,  who  sent  him 
back  to  the  Abbaye.  At  this  period,  1783, 
the  amount  of  his  debts,  speaking  only  of 
those  which  came  to  the  knowledge  of  his 
family,  had  risen  to  250,000  francs.  Set 
at  liberty  after  a  detention  of  six  months, 
he  conceived  the  idea  of  procuring  money 
by  enlisting  with  three  different  recruiting 
officers,  and  drawing  his  bounty  in  advance. 
Then  the  Prince  de  Poix  claimed  him  for  his 
regiment  of  dragoons.    Things  began  to  look 


TOUSSAINT  DE  BEAUSIRE         75 

serious.  Maitre  de  Senneville,  a  Parlement 
advocate,  into  whose  hands  his  case  was 
placed  by  his  family,  succeeded  in  obtaining 
an  annulment,  but  before  long,  disgusted  in 
his  turn,  he  threw  up  the  case.  To  free 
Beausire  from  his  responsibilities  to  the 
other  two  recruiting  officers,  his  family  had 
him  interned  by  lettre  de  cachet  in  the  famous 
madhouse  at  Picpus,  where  he  was  joined 
a  little  later  by  Saint-Just. 

In  order  to  save  what  was  left  of  his  patri- 
mony, half  of  which  had  been  squandered  in 
a  few  years,  his  relatives  had  him  declared 
non  compos  mentis  by  the  Chatelet  on  May 
12,  1786,  and  an  allowance  of  4000  livres 
was  settled  on  him.  Beausire  vehemently 
opposed  this  decree,  and  pursued  with 
special  hatred  the  architect  Louis  Moreau, 
the  relative  who  had  shown  most  severity 
towards  him  in  the  family  councils. 

Meanwhile  Toussaint  had  met  the  charm- 
ing little  Nicole  Leguay.    The  young  people 


'je       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

were  equally  impecunious,  but  their  debts 
added  together  gave  an  imposing  figure. 
The  Necklace  affair  came  to  light.  From  the 
Bastille,  Madame  de  La  Motte  succeeded  in 
warning  her  young  friend,  whom  she  called 
the  Baronne  d'Oliva.  The  lovers  betook 
themselves  arm-in-arm  to  Brussels,  where 
they  hoped  to  live  cheaper  than  in  Paris. 

On  October  17,  1785,  Nicole  and  her 
lover  were  arrested  in  Brussels,  and  sent  to 
the  Bastille  on  November  2.  On  March  11, 
1786,  Beausire  was  liberated,  but  only  to  be 
consigned  to  the  madhouse  in  accordance 
with  the  decree  of  the  court.  He  was  finally 
released  in  the  month  of  August  following. 

And  now  he  was  married,  and  the  father  of 
a  fine  baby  in  whom  all  France  was  inter- 
ested. Alas !  marriage  spelt  good-bye  to 
love.  Is  that  the  rule?  On  January  19, 
1789,  Louis  Joron,  king's  counsellor,  com- 
missary of  the  Chatelet,  heard  a  sad  story. 
Marie  Nicole  Leguay,  wife  of  Jean  Baptiste 


THE   BARONNE    DOLIVA. 


Of   TMf 

UNIVERSITY 

or 


TOUSSAINT  DE  BEAUSIRE         y^ 

Toussaint  de  Beausire,  esquire,  related  to 
him  how,  'having  come  to  know  the  said 
Beausire,  he  had  become  absolute  master 
of  her  actions  and  will,  as  well  as  of  her 
fortune  and  goods,  so  that  there  resulted  a 
male  child  who  was  still  living/  Nicole 
wept  copiously.  *  I  was  barely  married 
before  I  experienced  shocking  treatment 
at  the  hands  of  my  husband.  He  ill-used 
me,  and  beat  me  several  times.  He  is 
leading  the  most  scandalous  life,  passing 
his  nights  in  gambling  hells,  and  going 
with  other  women.  And  all  this  time  I 
am  confined  to  the  house,  where  I  am  in 
absolute  want.  We  live  in  the  same  house, 
but  lodge  separately — he  in  a  fine  front  room, 
I  in  a  poky  little  box  behind.  He  rarely 
has  his  meals  at  home,  and  when  he  does, 
eats  in  another  room.  So  far  from  giving 
me  money  to  buy  things,  he  has  pawned 
all  my  linen  and  goods  and  jewellery.  And 
now  he  wants  me  to  go  away,  to  retire  into 


78       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

a  convent,  but  will  not  give  me  the  means 
of  subsistence.  So,  beside  myself,  I  ran 
away  last  Monday,  taking  the  few  things 
for  my  personal  use  that  were  left,  and 
went  to  the  Hotel  Montpensier  at  the  Palais 
Royal,  where  I  had  already  stayed  with  him 
before  our  marriage,  when  he  loved  me. 
I  've  come  to  sue  my  husband,  so  that  the 
lieutenant-general  of  police,  after  appoint- 
ing a  convent  to  which  I  may  retire,  may 
compel  him  to  give  me  an  allowance  that 
will  enable  me  to  live  with  my  child.' 

Nicole  Leguay  accordingly  entered  a 
convent.  But  there  she  fell  into  a  decline. 
Country  air  was  prescribed.  She  was  taken 
to  Fontenay-sous-Bois ;  but  her  constitu- 
tion was  ruined.  She  died  on  June  24, 
1789,  and  was  buried  in  the  cemetery  of 
Vincennes. 

'  She  was  very  beautiful,'  said  Madame 
de  La  Motte,  'and  very  good,  and  very 
stupid.'     And  thus  her  fate  is  explained. 


TOUSSAINT  DE  BEAUSIRE  79 

But  we  are  waxing  sentimental  while 
already  the  revolutionary  cannon  are 
thundering. 

Beausire  was  among  the  conquerors  of  V 
the  Bastille.  We  know  how  those  honour- 
able citizens  who,  for  the  most  part, 
had  had  the  modesty  after  the  victory  to 
run  away  and  hide,  became  astonishingly 
numerous  a  few  days  later,  when  it  was 
recognised  that  their  deeds  were  brilliant 
achievements.  This  heroism  was  rewarded, 
in  Beausire's  case,  by  his  selection  to 
command  the  battalion  of  the  district  of 
the  fathers  of  Nazareth.  He  gave  his  men 
a  flag  embroidered  with  a  two-headed 
hydra  crushed  by  an  athlete,  with  the 
motto,  proceeding  from  the  gaping  beak 
of  a  cock  :  ^  He  is  scotched  at  last ! '  He 
also  gave  uniforms  to  three  needy  citizens. 
On  October  5  he  marched  on  Versailles. 
On  June  21,  1791,  'the  day  of  the  tyrant's 
return,'    he    exclaims,    he    was    constantly  ~ 


8o       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

under  arms.  The  ardour  he  displayed  on 
that  memorable  day  was  such  that  he  caught 
a  cold  in  his  chest,  which,  checking  the  course 
of  his  exploits,  compelled  him  to  retire  to  the 
country.  He  settled  at  Choisy-on- Seine, 
where  he  married,  on  October  6,  1791,  one 
Adelaide  Duport,  daughter  of  a  hat-maker. 
Unable  to  display  his  military  valour, 
Beausire  nevertheless  cherished  an  un- 
diminished ardour  in  the  cause  of  liberty. 
At  the  time  of  the  elections  for  the  National 
Convention,  he  drew  up  a  circular  in  favour 
of  the  right  candidates. 

Citizens ! 

The  country  is  in  danger  1  Her  safety  depends 
on  us.  Let  us  unite,  and  may  our  union  be 
an  impenetrable  rampart  against  faction  and 
intrigue !  Despotism  was  about  to  enslave  us 
anew.  The  good  citizens  have  shown  them- 
selves, and  the  machinations  of  our  tyrants  are 
about  to  be  unveiled.  We  were  within  an  inch 
of  ruin;  court  cabals  and  fanaticism  had  hollowed 
out  the  abyss.    But  for  the  energy  and  patriotism 


TOUSSAINT  DE  BEAUSIRE         8i 

of  our  brethren  we  should  have  been  dashed  over. 
The  choice  is  between  freedom  and  slavery,  and 
on  the  choice  you  will  make  in  your  primary 
assemblies  depends  the  fate  of  the  empire.  Let 
us  rally  as  one  man.  Let  personal  interest  be 
silent;  let  selfishness,  that  scourge  of  humanity, 
be  annihilated ! 

This  eloquence  continues  for  a  good 
space  yet.  Beausire  had  it  stuck  on  a 
huge  placard,  and  posted  at  his  expense, 
not  merely  in  his  own  commune,  but  in  all 
the  communes  adjacent. 

Will  it  surprise  us  to  find  that  his  fellow- 
citizens,  filled  with  admiration,  elected  him 
procurator  of  the  commune  of  Choisy-on- 
Seine?  He  did  great  things  in  his  office  : 
saw  to  the  storing  of  grain ;  forced  the 
farmers  of  the  district,  in  the  name  of 
liberty,  to  thrash  their  corn,  then  bring 
it  to  market  at  Choisy ;  and  brought  to 
their  senses  the  charcoal-burners  who  w^ere 
awaiting  a  more  favourable  opportunity  for 
selling  their  merchandise.    He  started  public 

F 


82       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

assemblies,   and  inaugurated   their   sittings 
with  a  speech  which  has  been  preserved. 

Citizens ! 

This  is  henceforth  to  be  the  place  of  your 
meetings.  It  was  one  of  the  appanages  of 
the  despots.  It  is  destined  to  the  reunion  of 
several  neighbouring  communes,  and  you  will 
all  make  one  whole.  Here  men  will  come  to 
drink  in  the  maxims  of  liberty,  which  alone  can 
assure  the  happiness  of  ourselves  and  our  children. 
They  will  find  in  us  friends  and  brothers  ;  always 
watchful,  incessantly  attentive  to  the  public  good  ! 
If  some  one  strayed  from  the  inestimable  principles 
of  our  holy  revolution,  your  wise  and  paternal 
counsels  would  bring  him  back  to  the  right  path. 
Continue  your  labours,  citizens,  propagate  the 
irrevocable  and  fundamental  principles  of  our 
republic.  Have  an  eye  to  the  malevolent  of 
every  class,  strengthen  public  spirit.  The  esteem 
of  all  good  citizens  will  be  the  sweet  recompense 
due  to  your  zeal  and  devotion  in  the  cause  of 
liberty ! 

These  brave  words  did  not  fall  on  deaf 
ears.  On  the  third  day  of  the  second  de- 
cade of  Brumaire,  in  the  Year  ii.   of  the 


TOUSSAINT  DE  BEAUSIRE  83 

French  Republic  one  and  indivisible,  the 
day  of  the  festival  of  the  Jerusalem  Arti- 
choke (November  3,  1793),  some  of  the 
*  friends  and  brothers,  always  watchful, 
incessantly  attentive  to  the  public  good,'  as 
Beausire  said,  *  moved  by  the  solicitude  for 
the  public  good  which  made  them  direct 
an  attentive  eye  on  all  that  might  con- 
tribute to  foster  and  awaken  republican 
ardour  in  the  youth  of  France,'  as  they 
said  themselves,  denounced  the  Sieur 
Beausire  to  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety 
'  as  a  quondam  noble,  formerly  attached 
to  the  quondam  Comte  d'Artois.' 

No  time  was  wasted.  On  the  margin  of 
the  information  are  the  words  *  To  be 
arrested.'  On  November  5,  1793,  the  pro- 
curator of  the  Commune  of  Choisy-on-Seine 
lay  in  the  prison  of  the  Luxembourg. 
Next  day  the  Commune  of  Choisy,  sum- 
moned by  the  sound  of  the  bell,  sent  a 
deputation  to  the  committee  to  demand  the 


84       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

release  of  their  procurator,  *an  honourable 
man  and  a  strong  republican.'  But  what 
did  that  matter  ?  The  deputation  of  twelve 
members,  on  arriving,  could  not  have 
an  audience  of  the  committee  at  their 
morning  sitting.  Nine  of  them,  retiring 
to  the  terrace  of  the  Feuillants  to  dine  and 
wait  for  the  resumption  of  the  sitting, 
were  surrounded  by  an  armed  force  and 
taken  to  the  guard-house  of  the  Conven- 
tion. At  eleven  o'clock,  five  of  them  were 
set  at  liberty,  but  the  other  four  were  kept 
under  lock  and  key.  Their  names  were 
Barier,  Nourrit,  Joanis,  and  Chevillard. 
They  were  put  through  an  interrogation. 

'  We  have  come  to  Paris  to  ask  for  the 
liberty  of  Citizen  Beausire.' 

Before  the  administrators  of  the  police 
department.  Citizen  Deschamps,  aide-de- 
camp to  the  Paris  Militia,  and  Citizen 
Didier,  juror  on  the  revolutionary  tribunal, 
declared :  '  Barier,  a  notary  of  Choisy,  is  a 


TOUSSAINT  DE  BEAUSIRE  85 

member  of  the  quondam  club  of  the  Sainte- 
Chapelle  ;  Nourrit,  a  painter  of  Choisy, 
highly  approved  the  massacre  of  the 
Champ  de  Mars,  and  there  exists  against 
him  an  information  to  the  People's  Society  ; 
Joanis,  commandant  of  the  National  Guards, 
has  deliberately  slandered  the  great  patriots 
Marat  and  Robespierre ;  Chevillard,  a 
coffee-house  keeper,  has  withdrawn  from  the 
People's  Society  because  that  had  ap- 
proved the  condemnation  of  the  tyrant, 
telling  several  of  the  members  that  they 
were  villains.'  Poor  Beausire's  case  was 
worse  than  before. 

The  four  delegates  were  kept  locked  up 
until  January  1794,  and  the  inhabitants  of 
Choisy-on- Seine  were  careful  to  send  no 
more  deputations. 

To  win  his  release  Beausire  thought  that 
the  best  course  was  to  denounce  those  of 
his  companions  in  captivity  who  were  im- 
prudent  enough   to   let   fall   compromising 


S6       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

words.  This  he  did  proudly,  writing  on 
July  30,  1794:  *I  do  not  pine  for  liberty, 
since  I  have  been  able,  even  in  my  prison, 
to  be  useful  to  the  commonwealth  by  re- 
vealing the  plots  that  were  in  weaving 
there.'  And  as  the  Committee  of  Public 
Safety  might  consider  it  advisable  to  leave 
him  in  a  position  where  he  could  do  them 
such  good  service,  he  hastened  to  add  : 
*  But  I  believe  that  I  should  be  still  more 
useful  to  my  fellow-citizens  elsewhere  than 
here,  and  that  it  is  which  makes  me  desire 
the  more  ardently  to  be  restored  to  my 
country.' 

As  this  appeal  met  with  no  response,  the 
prisoner  returned  to  the  charge  on  August 
18  :  *  In  the  course  of  Ventose,  I  was  lucky 
enough  to  discover  the  plots  being  hatched 
in  prison  by  the  Grammonts,  the  Dillons, 
and  others.  I  denounced  them  ;  the  traitors 
were  punished,  and  I  still  remain  in  irons.' 

Beausire  found    means   in  these  circum- 


TOUSSAINT  DE  BEAUSIRE  87 

stances  to  pay  off  an  old  score  against  that 
Louis  Moreau  who,  as  we  have  seen,  did 
his  best  to  curb  his  youthful  follies.  He 
included  him  in  his  denunciations,  and 
brought  him  to  the  guillotine.  *  I  call  the 
Supreme  Being  to  witness,'  wrote  Moreau 
to  the  revolutionary  tribunal  on  July  9,  1 794, 
*  that  no  scheme  whatever  has  come  to  my 
knowledge  for  laying  sacrilegious  hands  on 
the  representatives  of  the  people.  The 
witnesses  can  bring  no  evidence,  nor  even 
probabilities,  against  me.  Citizen  Beau- 
sire,  my  near  relative,  who  spent  a  repre- 
hensible youth,  found  me  against  him  in 
our  family  councils.  He  owes  the  pre- 
servation of  a  part  of  his  fortune  to  a 
decree  of  the  courts  we  obtained  against 
him.  On  that  account  he  has  conceived 
against  me  a  hatred  which  would  render 
him  culpable,  and  the  effect  of  which  would 
to-day  be  fatal,  if  the  equity  of  the  jurors 
and  of  the  tribunal,  on  whose  judgment  my 


88       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

life  depends,  did  not  rectify  it.'  The  poet 
Ducis,  '  of  the  quondam  French  Academy,' 
intervened  in  his  favour.  *  Citizen  Moreau.' 
he  said,  '  has  always  been  submissive  to 
the  laws.  He  gave  30,000  livres  towards 
the  war  against  the  brigands  of  La 
Vendee.  He  is  married,  and  the  father 
of  a  family.  His  wife  and  children  are 
in  tears.'  It  was  labour  lost.  Moreau 
was  condemned  and  executed,  on  the 
very  day  when  he  wrote  the  defence  we 
have  just  read.  He  was  an  architect  of 
great  merit,  who  had  early  in  his  career 
obtained  the  diploma  of  the  Ecole  de 
Rome,  was  admitted  to  the  Academy  in 
1762,  became  director  of  the  city  fabrics 
in  1763,  and  architect  to  the  king  in 
1783.  It  was  he  who  designed  the  facade 
of  the  Palais  Royal  on  the  Rue  Saint- 
Honore. 

We    are    reminded    of    a    very    similar 
case.      While  he  was  detained   at  Picpus, 


TOUSSAINT  DE  BEAUSIRE         89 

Beausire  had  perhaps  met  there  the 
great  Saint-Just.  Having  attained  power 
at  this  very  time,  Saint- Just  had  the 
pleasure  of  satisfying  his  rancour  in  the 
same  way.  One  of  his  victims,  Armand 
Brunet,  wrote  boldly  on  August  9,  1794, 
to  the  president  of  the  National  Con- 
vention— 

Citizen  President, 

A  prisoner  of  six  months'  duration,  I  venture 
to  bring  the  following  fact  to  your  notice  : — 

Saint-Just,  as  bad  a  son  as  he  is  a  citizen,  had 
robbed  his  mother  of  her  most  valuable  posses- 
sions. He  had  reviled  and  ill-treated  her.  I 
was  asked  by  this  hapless  mother  to  obtain  the 
imprisonment  of  her  unnatural  son,  and  he  was 
confined  at  Picpus  by  order  of  de  Crosne,  then 
lieutenant-general  of  police.  The  hatred  Saint- 
Just  swore  to  me  makes  me  regard  him  as  the 
author  of  my  arrest,  my  conscience  being  ab- 
solutely void  of  reproach. 

Brunet    was   not   mistaken.      Saint-Just, 
to  complete  his  work,  had  also  brought  the 


90       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

excellent  Thiroux  de  Crosne  to  the  guillo- 
tine, who  during  his  term  of  office  as  chief 
of  police  had  perhaps  had  reason  to  reproach 
himself  with  being  somewhat  foolish,  but 
certainly  with  being  too  kind. 

Meanwhile  Beausire,  in  spite  of  his  zeal 
— and  perhaps  because  his  services  in 
prison  were  so  well  appreciated — far  from 
obtaining  his  liberty,  was  transferred  to 
Sainte-Pdagie  on  August  12,  to  Plessis  on 
November  8,  to  the  Hospice  of  the  Arch- 
bishopric on  December  6,  1794,  whence 
he  was  brought  before  the  revolutionary 
tribunal  on  April  3,  1795.  He  was  ac- 
quitted. 

Beausire  died  many  years  later,  on 
February  3,  18 18,  being  then  controller  of 
taxes  of  Pas-de-Calais.  He  had  become 
a  devoted  servant  of  the  Empire,  and  re- 
tained his  office  at  the  Restoration.  By  his 
second  wife,  Adelaide  Duport,  he  left  six 
children. 


TOUSSAINT  DE  BEAUSIRE         91 

In  his  excellent  book,  Le  Marquis  de  La 
Rouerie,  M.  G.  Lenotre  says  :  *  Secondary 
characters  like  Lalligand  and  Chevetel  hold 
a  more  important  place  in  the  story  of  the 
Terror  than  most  people  think.  The  Re- 
volution may  be  compared  to  a  picture  that 
needs  new  canvas.  It  has  been  so  often 
painted,  and  painted  again.  To  find  what 
lies  beneath,  it  must  be  turned  over,  the 
canvas  must  be  picked  off  thread  by  thread, 
to  show  the  original  coat  of  colour.  One 
might  hold  forth  for  a  thousand  years  on 
the  political  ideas  of  Robespierre — who  had 
none — on  the  legality  of  the  trial  of  the 
king,  on  the  official  causes  of  the  fall  of  the 
Girondins,  without  knowing  the  Revolu- 
tion one  whit  better.  You  have  to  plunge 
into  the  depths.  What  is  to  be  found  there 
is  worth  bringing  to  the  light.' 

A  slight  place  will  perhaps  be  conceded 
to  Beausire  among  the  Lalligands  and 
Chdvetels,  whose  personalities  M.   Lenotre 


92       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

has  brought  to  life  again.  Toussaint 
de  Beausire  appears  to  have  been  the 
average  type  of  revolutionary.  Others 
had  a  more  brilliant  fate :  Mirabeau,  be- 
cause he  spoke  better ;  Carnot,  because  he 
was  more  intelligent ;  Saint-Just,  because 
he  was  a  still  greater  hypocrite ;  Robes- 
pierre, because  he  was  clever  at  striking 
attitudes  which  at  a  distance  produced  a 
certain  effect ;  but  on  examining  them  more 
closely  you  will  find  in  each  of  them  a 
Toussaint  de  Beausire.  The  value  of  the 
coin  is  greater,  to  be  sure ;  the  stamp  is 
identical. 

And  with  this  observation,  which  will  not 
perhaps  meet  with  unquestioning  approval, 
let  us  turn  to  Madame  de  La  Motte. 


THE  COUNTESS  DE  LA  MOTTE     93 


VII 

THE    COUNTESS    DE   LA    MOTTE    AT 
THE   SALPETRIERE 

After  the  sentence  on  Jeanne  de  Valois 
had  been  executed,  pubHc  opinion  veered 
round  in  her  favour ;  and  the  movement  is 
duly  noted  in  the  journal  of  the  bookseller 
Hardy.  Such  a  revulsion  is  in  fact  almost 
a  general  law.  Here  is  a  woman  guilty  of  a 
crime  :  at  the  first  moment  she  is  the  object 
of  bitter  indignation  ;  people  clamour  for 
her  death  ;  abandoned  to  the  mob  she  would 
be  lynched.  Months  pass  by ;  the  un- 
happy woman  is  incarcerated,  and  is  now 
alone,  feeble,  deserted.  It  begins  to  be 
thought  that  the  prosecution  was  merciless 
and   the    condemnation    brutal,    while    re- 


94       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

membrance  of  the  crime  is  dulled,  or  it  loses 
its  horror  as  men's  minds  are  familiarised 
with  it.  Ere  long  the  public  hear  nothing 
but  the  pleadings  of  their  own  emotions  and 
chivalrous  sentiments.  Is  it  certain  that 
the  woman  was  guilty  ?  She  had  enemies. 
Some  say  she  is  a  martyr. 

The  circumstances  of  Madame  de  La 
Motte's  punishment  had  been  horrible. 
They  spread  through  Paris,  and  made  a 
deep  impression  on  the  populace.  People 
retailed  her  imprecations  on  the  queen 
and  the  Cardinal  de  Rohan,  her  charges 
against  them,  her  accusations  against  the 
Parlement,  all  honey  and  indulgence  to 
people  of  importance,  always  ready  to 
grovel  to  the  court,  the  nobility,  and  the 
clergy.  '  Hardly  had  the  sentence  on  the 
Dame  de  La  Motte  been  carried  into  execu- 
tion,' writes  Hardy,  'when  a  certain  section 
of  the  public,  touched  with  compassion, 
perhaps  because  they  regarded  her  as  the 


THE  COUNTESS  DE  LA  MOTTE     95 

victim  of  a  court  intrigue,  ventured  to 
blame  the  Parlement,  believing  that  that 
court  had  shown  undue  severity  in  the 
matter.  They  endeavoured  to  bring  its 
judgment  into  bad  odour,  and  clamoured 
against  the  violence  it  had  been  compelled 
to  employ.' 

'It  is  not  surprising,'  we  read  in  the 
Memoirs  of  the  Princess  de  Lamballe,  *  that 
Paris,  which  till  this  moment  had  delighted 
in  the  queen  as  in  a  beneficent  divinity 
whose  mere  look  carried  consolation  to  the 
souls  of  the  wretched,  could  not  understand 
how  she  had  abandoned  Madame  de  La 
Motte  to  the  horror  of  her  fate ;  and  as 
the  Frenchman  must  go  to  extremes,  he 
passed  from  idolatry  to  indignation.  Public  _j 
opinion  began  to  vacillate,  and  the  private 
enemies  of  this  princess  stimulated  the  dis- 
content. The  queen  no  longer  saw  the 
crowd  pressing  about  her  to  catch  a  glimpse 
of    her,    no    longer   heard    their   flattering 


g6       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

murmurs  of  delight.  No  one  told  the 
queen  that  the  coldness  the  crowd  mani- 
fested towards  her  might  have  fatal  results, 
and  far  from  seeking  to  destroy  it,  she 
took  offence.  Her  features,  hitherto  so 
sweet  and  caressing,  expressed  in  public 
nothing  but  haughtiness  and  disdain  for 
the  opinion  of  those  whom  she  never 
dreamt  of  regarding  as  able  to  dispose  of 
her  destiny  and  that  of  her  family.' 

Engravings  in  the  picture-shops  repre- 
sented the  countess  in  the  costume  of  the 
Salpetriere  :  a  dress  of  coarse  grey  drugget, 
with  stockings  of  the  same  colour,  a  brown 
woollen  petticoat,  a  round  cap,  a  coarse 
linen  chemise  and  a  pair  of  sabots.  The 
journals  related  the  most  trivial  details  of 
her  life  in  prison.  Only  the  most  unfeeling 
could  fail  to  be  touched  by  them. 

'The  situation  of  the  countess,'  said  the 

Gazette  d'  Utrecht,  '  is  beginning  to  interest 

^         even  people  who  were   most  unmoved   at 


THE  COUNTESS  DE  LA  MOTTE     97 

her  punishment.  It  is  quite  a  mistake  to 
beheve  that  the  unfortunate  woman  enjoys 
any  marks  of  preference  over  her  com- 
panions in  imprisonment.  She  is  stretched 
on  a  bed  of  pain,  which  she  steeps  in  her 
tears.  It  is  true  that  beneficent  hands 
have  flown  to  her  succour ;  but  the  custom 
prevaiHng  in  this  house  of  distributing 
among  all  the  inmates  the  marks  of  kind- 
ness intended  by  charitable  souls  for  one 
of  them  results  in  her  scarcely  feeling  any 
effects  from  the  beneficence  of  those  who 
wish  to  assist  her.  Her  complexion  is 
yellow.  She  has  become  extremely  thin. 
She  is  mixed  up  with  a  crowd  of  women, 
the  scum  of  nature  and  society,  branded 
like  herself,  who  yet  have  some  considera- 
tion for  the  unhappy  woman  whom  they 
call  *'  the  countess,"  and  whom  they  en- 
deavour to  console.  The  Dame  de  La 
Motte  weeps  only  for  her  lost  honour,  and 
not  for   her  dreadful  plight.      She  has   to 

G 


98       CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

sleep  with  three  others,  on  a  mattress 
terribly  hard.  She  is  obliged  for  the  most 
part  to  pass  the  night  on  a  bench ;  or, 
when  awake,  she  does  nothing  but  groan 
in  a  room  where  the  windows  are  ten  feet 
from  the  ground.  There  no  light  is  ever 
seen,  except  the  half-intercepted  daylight. 
She  wears  the  uniform  of  the  establishment. 
She  has  only  a  few  wretched  dressing- 
jackets  and  round  caps ;  but  when  they 
are  worn  out,  she  will  have  to  be  satisfied 
with  fustian  rags.  Her  food  is  black  bread; 
on  Sundays  an  ounce  of  meat,  on  Fridays 
a  piece  of  cheese,  on  the  other  days  some 
beans  or  lentils  soaked  in  plenty  of  water.' 

Anecdotes  were  told  about  her  to  bring 
tears  to  the  eyes,  and  people  did  weep. 
She  had  written  to  the  Archbishop  of 
Paris  a  letter  'sublime  in  the  picture  of 
suffering  she  there  draws,  and  in  the  piety 
and  resignation  she  gives  expression  to. 
M.    du    Tillet,    director    of    the    General 


THE  COUNTESS  DE  LA  MOTTE     99 

Hospital,  consoled  her,  exhorting  her  to 
dry  her  tears — 

'  I  will  dry  my  tears,  sir,  since  you  will 
have  it  so ;  but  you  will  at  least  allow  those 
of  gratitude  to  flow.' 

*The  Dame  de  La  Motte,'  notes  the 
Gazette  de  Leyde,  '  is  becoming  more  and 
more  stoical  and  resigned  to  her  fate.  She 
employs  herself  the  greater  part  of  the 
day  in  reading  and  meditating  on  the 
ascetic  book  on  the  Imitation  of  Jesus 
Christ, ' 

In  reading  and  meditating  the  Imitation 
of  Christ ! — and  the  queen  dared  to  say 
that  she  was  a  criminal !     She  was  a  saint ! 

One  of  these  anecdotes  daily  purveyed 
to  the  public  set  all  Europe  thrilling.  It 
became  known — and  the  gazettes  were  on 
the  point  of  issuing  special  editions,  though 
the  use  of  big-type  posters  was  not  yet 
invented — it  became  known  that  the  poor 
women  at  the  Salp6triere,  young  and  old, 


100     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

thieves  and  light  women,  the  scum  of  the 
human  race,  touched  by  so  much  virtue 
and  resignation,  by  such  kindHness  and 
grace,  had  clubbed  together,  one  going 
without  her  snuff,  another  not  sending  her 
fancy-man  the  usual  three  sous  a  week,  in 
order  to  provide  the  countess  with  a  varia- 
tion from  the  usual  menu — rye  bread,  boiled 
lentils  and  cheese — namely,  a  dish  of  peas 
and  bacon. 

Dear,  simple,  primitive  souls!  Christ, 
as  the  Gazette  de  Hollande  eloquently 
observed,  knew  the  human  soul  when,  at 
Golgotha,  scorning  the  rich,  He  bent  His 
head  towards  the  repentant  thief. 

And  thus  the  rich  and  noble  were  piqued 
into  emulation.  The  Salpetriere  had  not 
received  so  many  and  such  brilliant  visitors 
for  many  a  long  day :  the  Mar^chale  de 
Mouchy,  the  Duchess  de  Duras,  Madame 
du  Bourg,  and  a  hundred  others.  An 
anonymous  letter  written  from  the  house  of 


THE  COUNTESS  DE  LA  MOTTE     loi 

detention  to  the  Baronne  de  Saint- Remy, 
sister  of  Jeanne  de  Valois,  said:  'AH  the 
grandees  have  been  to  see  your  sister  ; 
they  all  take  her  part.  Who  would  not  ? 
God  alone  knows  the  truth  and  purity  of 
her  heart ! '  The  Duke  of  Orleans,  who 
was  at  the  head  of  the  Freemasons  and 
preparing  for  his  revolutionary  part,  saw 
what  profit  he  might  make  of  the  business, 
and  the  duchess  took  the  lead  in  this 
charming  movement  of  compassion.  *  Draw 
up  a  memorial  to  the  Duchess  of  Orleans,' 
said  the  letter  to  Marie  Anne  de  Saint- 
R6my. 

Naturally,  there  was  some  talk  of  plans 
of  escape.  One  of  them  was  especially 
picturesque.  'The  countess,'  said  the 
Gazette  d' Utrecht  of  August  i,  'has  at- 
tempted to  escape.  She  had  already  made 
a  hole  through  which  her  head  would  go. 
She  stuck  in  this  opening,  so  that  she 
could    go   neither   forward    nor    backward. 


102     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

Fright  seized  her  :  she  struggled  in  vain, 
and  her  cries  brought  up  the  warders,  who 
found  her  in  that  position.  Her  attempt 
has  only  increased  the  rigour  of  her  deten- 
tion.' 

Among  the  compassionate  souls  so  much 
touched  by  the  fate  of  Jeanne  de  Valois, 
there  was  one  who  holds  a  peculiar  place 
by  reason  of  her  delicious  grace  and  kindli- 
ness. 

Louise  de  Carignan  was  left  at  eighteen 
years  the  widow  of  a  husband  who  had 
died  of  dissipation — Stanislas  de  Bourbon, 
Prince  de  Lamballe.  *  The  greatest  beauty 
of  Madame  de  Lamballe,'  say  the  Gon- 
courts,  '  was  the  serenity  of  her  features. 
The  very  brilliance  of  her  eyes  was  restful. 
In  spite  of  the  shocks  and  the  fever  of  a 
nervous  ailment,  there  was  not  a  wrinkle, 
not  a  cloud  on  her  beautiful  forehead, 
caressed  by  the  long  fair  tresses  which  later 
on  still  curled  about  the  pike.     An  Italian 


THE  COUNTESS  DE  LA  MOTTE     103 

by  race,  Madame  de  Lamballe  had  all  the 
graces  of  the  northern  peoples.  Her  soul 
was  as  serene  as  her  face.  She  was 
tender  and  caressing,  always  ready  to  make 
sacrifices,  devoted  in  little  things,  dis- 
interested above  all.  Her  mind  had  the 
virtues  of  her  temperament — tolerance, 
simplicity,  amiability,  quiet  cheerfulness. 
Seeing  no  evil,  and  unwilling  to  believe  in 
it,  Madame  de  Lamballe  fashioned  things 
and  the  world  to  her  own  image,  and 
banishing  every  evil  thought  by  the  charity 
of  her  illusions,  her  talk  breathed  unruffled 
peace  and  sweetness.' 

The  horrible  fate  of  Madame  de  La  Motte 
made  a  deep  impression  on  the  sensitive 
and  excitable  nature  of  the  young  princess. 
Her  imagination  took  fire  at  the  thought  of 
a  judicial  error.  She  remembered  having 
seen  her  respected  father-in-law,  the  gentle 
and  charitable  Duke  de  Penthievre,  receiving 
Madame  de  La  Motte  at  Chateauvilain  with 


104     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

the  honours  reserved  for  princesses  of  the 
blood.  She  was  on  intimate  terms  with 
her  sister-in-law  the  Duchess  of  Orleans. 
She  presided  over  masonic  lodges.  At 
this  very  time,  feeling  that  the  queen  was 
a  little  neglected  among  the  enmities  spring- 
ing up  and  growing  dangerous  around  her, 
the  Princess  de  Lamballe,  who  had  quietly- 
withdrawn  before  Madame  de  Polignac, 
returned  to  the  side  of  the  queen ;  and  yet 
she  could  not  refrain  from  bearing  to  the 
Salpdtriere  the  consolations  of  her  great 
heart.  But  natures  like  hers  are  not 
easily  understood.  The  superior  of  the 
Salpetriere  at  this  time  was  Madame 
Robin,  known  as  Sister  Victoire.  One  day 
Madame  de  Lamballe  insisted  on  seeing 
the  prisoner,  relying  on  her  rank  as  a 
princess  of  the  blood  to  open  all  doors  be- 
fore her.  Sister  Victoire  declined  to  allow 
her,  believing  that  she  was  actuated  merely 
by    a    vain    curiosity    which    would     only 


THE  COUNTESS  DE  LA  MOTTE     105 

have  inflicted  additional  humiliation  on 
the  condemned  woman. 

'  But  why  cannot  I  see  Madame  de  La 
Motte  ? ' 

*  Because,  madame,  that  is  not  part  of 
her  sentence.' 


io6     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 


VIII 

THE    ESCAPE 

Madame  de  La  Motte  was  attended  at 
the  Salpetriere  by  one  of  the  prisoners,  a 
girl  named  Angelique,  who  had  been 
condemned  to  perpetual  imprisonment  for 
having  in  the  despair  of  desertion  killed 
her  child.  About  the  end  of  November 
1786,  a  sentry  on  duty  in  one  of  the  court- 
yards of  the  hospital,  passing  the  stock 
of  his  musket  through  a  broken  pane 
of  glass,  wakened  Angelique  sleeping 
within.  The  soldier  told  her  that  some  one 
was  scheming  to  set  her  and  her  mistress 
free.  Next  day  he  handed  her  a  note 
written  in  sympathetic  ink,  the  writing  of 
which  she   made   visible  by  holding  it  to 


THE  ESCAPE  107 

the  fire.  This  was  the  beginning  of  a 
correspondence.  *  The  important  thing  is,' 
said  the  unknown  benefactor,  who  had 
taken  the  fate  of  Jeanne  de  Valois  to  heart, 
'to  obtain  a  model  of  the  key  opening 
the  gate  by  which  the  prisoner  will  have 
to  go  out'  But  how  was  this  model  to 
be  procured.'*  Jeanne  had  the  idea  to 
examine  carefully  every  day  the  key  hang- 
ing from  the  bunch  of  the  nun  who  came 
to  visit  her.  Then,  when  the  good  sister 
had  left  her,  she  tried  to  draw  an  exact 
reproduction  of  it  on  a  blank  sheet  of  paper. 
Next  day  she  would  examine  it  again,  and 
correct  her  drawing  in  one  point  or  another. 
The  hole  in  the  lock  gave  the  dimensions 
of  the  key.  Jeanne  considered  at  last 
that  her  drawing,  after  being  touched  up 
more  than  twenty  times,  ought  to  be  pretty 
exact.  She  had  it  passed  to  the  sentry, 
and  he,  a  few  days  afterwards,  brought 
back  a  key  which  opened  the  lock. 


io8     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 


One  after  another,  the  sentinel  had 
conveyed  to  her  the  various  parts  of  a 
disguise — coat,  breeches,  and  hat.  Mean- 
while Angelique,  who  was  to  have  been 
a  lifelong  prisoner,  had  been  set  at  liberty, 
and  another  prisoner,  named  Marianne, 
wife  of  Desrues  the  poisoner,  was  given 
as  a  servant  to  Madame  de  La  Motte. 
But  some  time  elapsed  without  a  reappear- 
ance on  the  part  of  the  sentry,  and  Madame 
de  La  Motte  was  becoming  alarmed,  when 
she  received  by  the  same  channel  a  note 
which  said  :  '  Your  dear  Angelique  is  free  ; 
name  the  day  when  you  want  to  be  free  too.' 

*The  5th  of  June'  was  her  reply.  She 
knew  that  on  that  day  Sister  Fanchon, 
whose  duty  it  was  to  shut  the  doors  along 


<^^^^Pi^H 

1 

THE  ESCAPE  109 

the  corridor,  was  going  to  the  Bois  de 
Vincennes. 

She  put  on  her  disguise :  a  frock  coat 
of  royal  blue,  black  vest,  and  breeches,  a 
tall  round  hat ;  she  took  a  light  walking- 
stick  and  put  on  a  pair  of  skin  gloves. 
The  key  opened  the  doors.  The  two 
fugitives  reached  the  courtyard,  where  they 
mingled  with  the  crowd.  They  knew  that 
they  were  to  make  for  the  Seine,  where  a 
boat  with  two  men  on  board  was  awaiting 
them.  They  found  the  boat,  and  took 
their  places.  The  men  rowed  rapidly  to 
Charenton  ;  on  the  bank  was  a  fiacre  to 
drive  them  to  Maison- Rouge,  where  they 
passed  the  first  night. 

Provins  was  the  second  stage.  In  the 
streets  of  the  little  town,  a  group  of  officers, 
staring  at  the  young  women,  saw  through 
the  disguise.     One  of  them  left  the  rest. 

*  My  fine  cavalier,  were  you  to  lead  me 
to  the  pit  of  hell  I  'd  follow  you/  he  said. 


no     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

Madame  de  La  Motte  was  speechless  with 
anxiety. 

'  I  see  what  it  is,'  continued  the  soldier. 
*  You  're  a  young  lady  running  away  from 
the  convent,  and  going  to  join  the  happy 
man  who  has  your  heart.' 

*  Sir,  if  you  are  so  sure  of  it,  please 
don't  follow  me.  Isn't  your  persistence 
indiscreet  ? ' 

Clearly  an  indiscretion.  The  gallant 
strode  away. 

Taking  warning  by  the  incident,  Madame 
de  La  Motte  judged  it  prudent  to  throw  off 
her  disguise.  Marianne  bought  at  a  shop 
in  the  town  some  things  suitable  to  a 
countrywoman — a  basket,  some  butter  and 
eggs. 

A  league  from  Provins,  rows  of  greyish 
willows  edge  the  banks  of  the  Voulzie, 
which  flows  on,  a  clear  and  merry  stream, 
between  green  meadows.  Clumps  of  rushes 
and   long  grasses  form   curtains   in   which 


THE  ESCAPE  iii 

the  wind  rustles.  There  the  two  fugitives 
found  a  hiding-place.  Their  male  attire 
was  tied  up  In  a  bundle,  a  stone  was 
fastened  to  it,  and  It  was  thrown  Into  deep 
water.  And  here  is  Jeanne  walking  on 
the  highroad,  a  country  peasant  woman, 
with  short  petticoats,  looking  very  dainty 
in  her  many-laced  linen  bodice,  her  cloth 
apron,  her  petticoat  of  calamanco  with 
stripes  of  blue,  pink,  and  white,  her  little 
feet  in  a  clumsy  pair  of  shoes  with  shining 
buckles.  She  has  in  her  basket  some  fresh 
butter  and  white  eggs  she  Is  going  to  sell 
at  the  next  market.  Passing  peasants  hail 
the  fresh,  pretty,  laughing  girl,  and  give 
her  a  lift  in  their  waggons.  And  thus 
she  comes  to  Troyes,  whence  she  reaches 
the  environs  of  Bar-sur-Aube. 

She  arrived  at  the  Crottieres,  open 
quarries  whence  is  extracted  the  ragstone 
of  which  many  of  the  houses  in  the  town 
are  constructed.     The  Crottieres  served  as 


112     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

an  asylum  to  vagabonds  and  tramps.  A 
little  fir  copse  divides  them  from  the  road 
that  leads  from  Bar-sur-Aube  to  Clairvaux. 
From  this  height  you  get  a  view  of  the 
town  encircled  by  the  shining  arms  of  the 
Aube,  behind  the  village  of  Fontaine,  so 
picturesque  with  its  old  bridge  and  its 
whirling,  clicking  mills.  There  the  Bresse 
flows  up  to  join  it,  like  a  ribbon  gleaming 
in  the  luxuriant  grass,  and  plaiting  itself 
capriciously  with  the  quivering  ranks  of 
reeds.  And  in  the  distance  the  hills  of 
Sainte-Germaine  arch  themselves  into  a 
sombre  cupola,  St.  Peter's  showing  the 
graceful  outlines  of  its  pointed  spire.  In 
the  darkness  of  the  Crottieres  the  fugitive 
lay  hidden.  She  sent  Marianne  with  notes 
to  relatives  and  old  friends  whom  she  knew 
in  Bar-sur-Aube.  M.  de  Surmont,  who 
had  taken  her  into  his  house  many  years 
before  when  she  fled  from  the  convent  of 
Longchamp,  came  to  her  at  night.     They 


MADAME   DE   LA   MOTTE   IN   PEASANT  COSTUME. 


THE  ESCAPE  113 

sat  talking  by  the  roadside.  He  left  her 
some  money.  *When  the  hapless  woman,' 
says  Beugnot,  '  fleeing  from  the  Salpetriere, 
hid  herself  in  the  quarries  during  the  night, 
my  mother,  who  had  never  ceased  to  main- 
tain her  innocence,  even  after  the  judgment, 
had  the  courage  to  go  and  seek  her  there. 
She  restored  to  her  a  gift  of  twenty  louis 
which  the  countess  had  intrusted  to  her 
for  the  relief  of  distress  in  the  time  of  her 
prosperity.  She  did  more.  She  raised  the 
poor  disgraced  woman  in  her  own  eyes, 
by  bringing  her  own  purity  and  virtue  in 
contact  with  her.' 

From  Bar-sur-Aube,  Jeanne  and  her 
faithful  companion  reached  Lorraine, 
Nancy,  then  Luneville,  then  Metz,  Thion- 
ville,  Ettingen  and  Hollerich,  in  the  grand- 
duchy  of  Luxembourg,  where  they  were 
received  by  a  lady  named  Schilz.  Through 
Belgium,  by  Bruges  and  Ostend,  they  at  last 
gained   the   shores  of  England,   and  from 

H 


114     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

Dover  posted  to  London,  where  Madame 
de  La  Motte  was  able  to  throw  herself  into 
the  arms  of  her  husband,  on  August  4, 
1787,  at  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon. 

What  mysterious  hand  had  favoured  her 
flight?  She  never  knew.  The  opinion  of 
the  time  was  that  the  queen  herself  had 
opened  a  way  of  escape.  Madame  Campan 
had  no  suspicion  of  it.  '  Through  a  series 
of  misapprehensions  which  guided  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  court,  it  was  found  that  the 
cardinal  and  the  woman  La  Motte  were 
equally  guilty  but  unequally  punished,  and 
they  wished  to  redress  the  balance.  This 
new  crime  confirmed  the  Parisians  in  the 
idea  that  this  creature,  who  had  never 
succeeded  in  penetrating  even  so  far  as 
the  antechamber  of  the  queen's  women, 
had  really  awakened  the  interest  of  that 
unfortunate  princess.' 


LIFE  OF  MADAME  DE  LA  MOTTE    115 


IX 

MADAME    DE    LA   MOTTE   WRITES    THE 
STORY    OF    HER    LIFE 

The  Countess  de  La  Motte  rejoined  her 
husband  in  London  on  August  4,  1787. 
'  Several  times,  during  the  period  I  spent  with 
her,'  writes  the  count,  *she  tried  to  destroy 
herself,  and  for  mere  trifles,  the  most  in- 
significant vexations.  Twice  I  held  her 
back  by  her  clothes  when  she  attempted 
to  fling  herself  out  of  window.  When 
she  rejoined  me  in  London,  I  avoided  all 
occasions  of  causing  her  the  least  annoy- 
ance. I  quickly  perceived  that  the  great 
misfortunes  she  had  suffered  had  much 
embittered  her  temper,  and  that  tact  and 
caution  were  needed  to  keep  her  in  good 


\ 


ii6     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

humour.  In  spite  of  all  my  patience  I 
could  not  help  saying  one  day  that  her 
woes  were  all  caused  by  her  own  wayward- 
ness and  extravagances.  I  had  no  sooner 
uttered  the  words  than  she  flung  herself 
on  a  dagger  she  happened  to  be  holding 
in  her  hand,  and,  despite  my  promptitude 
in  running  to  her,  along  with  the  people 
who  were  in  the  house,  we  could  not 
prevent  her  from  striking  herself  below 
the  breast,  and  we  saw  her  fall  helpless 
to  the  floor.' 

Husband  and  wife  were  in  extreme 
poverty.  La  Motte,  spendthrift  as  he  was, 
had  not  been  long  in  getting  rid  of  all  the 
money  and  jewels  he  had  taken  from  the 
jeweller  Gray  after  his  flight  from  Bar- 
sur-Aube  in  1785.  An  English  lord, 
touched  with  compassion  for  the  pitiable 
victim  of  a  judicial  error,  gave  a  pension 
to  the  countess,  and  she  found  a  second 
protector  in  Charles  Alexandre  de  Calonne, 


LIFE  OF  MADAME  DE  LA  MOTTE    117 

the  former  controller-general  of  the  finances, 
who  had  worked  actively  to  secure  the 
acquittal  of  the  cardinal  from  a  desire  to 
wound  the  queen,  and  who,  as  we  shall 
see,  exerted  himself  by  and  by  to  deal 
Marie  Antoinette  the  final  blow.  Jeanne 
was  at  this  time  thirty-one  years  old,  and 
as  pretty,  lively,  and  piquant  as  ever.  Old 
Calonne  became  quite  sparkish  again. 
And  his  hatred  for  the  queen  was  thus 
blent  with  his  attachment  to  the  little 
countess,  a  conjunction  destined  to  pro- 
duce the  most  monstrous  of  collaborations. 

The  Necklace  case  had  made  a  tre- 
mendous sensation  throughout  Europe,  and 
especially  in  England.  A  book  by  Madame 
de  La  Motte  relating  the  story  in  full  detail 
was  sure  to  be  a  success  which  would  pro- 
vide her  with  the  means  of  subsistence. 
As  her  style  was  hopelessly  defective, 
Calonne  introduced  to  her  Serre  de  Latour, 
a  French  journalist  who  had  taken  refuge 


ii8     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

in  London  after  running  away  with  the 
wife  of  the  intendant  of  Auvergne,  and  was 
there  editing  the  Courrier  de  V Europe,  a 
news-sheet  financed  by  a  speculator  named 
Swinton.  And  Calonne  put  his  own  services 
at  her  disposal. 

The  tide  of  slander  was  rising  around 
Marie  Antoinette.  '  Listen,'  write  the 
Goncourts,  'listen  to  a  nation's  whispers 
and  murmurs,  rising,  falling,  falling,  rising, 
between  the  Markets  and  Versailles, 
between  Versailles  and  the  Markets. 
Listen  to  the  populace,  listen  to  the  chair- 
bearers,  listen  to  the  courtiers  bringing 
calumny  from  Marly  and  then  post-haste 
to  Paris !  Listen  to  the  marquises  in  the 
actresses'  dressing-rooms,  in  the  drawing- 
rooms  of  the  Sophie  Arnoulds  and  the 
Contats,  of  harlots  and  opera-girls.  Inter- 
rogate the  street,  the  ante-room,  the  salons, 
the  court,  the  royal  family  itself.  Calumny 
is  everywhere,  even  at  the  very  skirts  of 


LIFE  OF  MADAME  DE  LA  MOTTE    119 

the  queen/  And  what  fuel  the  pen  of  the 
countess  was  about  to  furnish  to  the  fire  ! 
It  was  dreaded  at  Versailles.  Madame  de 
La  Motte  and  Calonne  were  being  watched. 
The  Duchess  of  Polignac  set  out  for  London, 
and  condescended  to  negotiate  with  the  La 
Mottes,  offering  them  money.  But  Jeanne 
worked  herself  up  to  a  fine  pitch  of  indig- 
nation, and  made  preposterous  demands. 
She  claimed  her  rehabilitation,  in  addition 
to  the  money  and  all  that  had  been  taken 
from  her.     Her  Memoirs  appeared. 

*  I  can  attest,'  wrote  Madame  Campan, 
*  that  I  saw  in  the  queen's  hands  a  manu- 
script of  the  Memoirs  of  the  woman  La 
Motte,  brought  her  from  London :  it  was 
corrected  by  the  hand  of  Calonne  himself 
at  every  place  where  total  ignorance  of  the 
customs  of  the  court  had  made  her  commit 
gross  blunders.'  *  M.  de  Latour,'  writes  the 
Count  de  La  Motte  on  the  other  hand, 
'  handed  the  manuscript  to  M.  de  Calonne, 


120     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

who  made  changes  and  corrections  and 
additions  without  number,  almost  on  every 
page :  all  these  corrections  were  written 
with  his  own  hand,  and  for  the  most  part  in 
pencil.' 

In  the  course  of  her  examinations  at  the 
Bastille,  Jeanne  de  Valois  had  declared  that 
the  Necklace  had  been  stolen  by  Cagliostro. 
Afterwards,  before  the  Parlement,  she 
asserted  that  the  robber  was  the  Cardinal 
de  Rohan.  '  In  the  matter  of  the  Necklace,' 
she  had  written  when  on  the  point  of 
appearing  before  her  judges,  'it  is  an  un- 
doubted fact  that  the  king  and  queen  had 
several  years  ago  refused  to  purchase  it. 
If  it  was  true  that  the  queen  had  taken  a 
new  fancy  for  the  jewel,  she  could  have  got 
it  without  any  mystery  with  the  funds  at  her 
disposal.' 

But  she  once  more  changed  her  tune.  In 
her  Mdmoire  justificatif  ^^  declared  that  the 
Necklace  had  been  taken  by  the  queen. 


LIFE  OF  MADAME  DE  LA  MOTTE    121 

An  extract  will  enable  the  reader  to 
appreciate  the  Mdmoire  justijicatif,  '  I  need 
no  longer  put  any  restraint  on  myself,'  wrote 
Madame  de  La  Motte.  *  I  suppose  myself  at 
this  moment  in  regions  of  independence  and 
peace,  where  my  sufferings  will,  I  hope,  win 
me  a  place,  relating,  without  prejudice  as 
without  passion,  to  the  celestial  throng  the 
sad  dreams  I  have  had  on  earth.' 

The  Cardinal  de  Rohan,  as  we  know,  had 
only  arrived  in  Vienna  as  ambassador  a 
year  after  the  departure  of  Marie  Antoinette 
to  become  the  wife  of  the  dauphin,  after- 
wards Louis  XVI.  Obviously,  then,  he  could 
not  have  seen  the  young  archduchess  there. 
This  was  no  obstacle  to  the  following  para- 
graph, in  Jeanne  de  La  Motte's  dispassionate 
story  to  the  *  celestial  throng ' : — 

The  Cardinal  de  Rohan  told  me,  and  repeated 
to  me  several  times,  that  the  grievances  of 
Her  Majesty  rested  on  a  poor  foundation.  He 
confided  to  me  that,  at  the  time  when  he  was 


122     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

ambassador  at  Venice,  the  queen  was  still  an 
archduchess.  Emboldened  by  the  lightness  of 
N  her  conduct,  he  had  ventured  to  offer  his  homage, 
which  was  not  rejected.  His  happiness  had 
passed  as  a  dream.  The  marked  favours 
obtained  by  a  German  officer  had  turned  his 
head  till  he  allowed  himself  to  drop  most  in- 
discreet remarks. 

This  extract  will  give  an  idea  of  the  tone 
and  the  veracity  of  the  work,  which  was 
presented  to  the  public  under  the  guise  of 
the  finest  sentiments — 'my  sensitiveness 
and  delicate  notions  of  honour,'  said  Jeanne. 
The  book  also  derived  something  from  the 
persuasive  faculty  which  she  undoubtedly 
possessed.  Eight  thousand  copies  were 
printed,  and  in  a  short  time  more  than  seven 
thousand  had  been  disposed  of.  It  was  at 
once  translated  into  English  and  German. 
In  Germany  it  appeared  in  two  different 
editions,  one  published  by  the  booksellers 
of  Brunswick,  the  other  by  those  of 
Nuremberg. 


LIFE  OF  MADAME  DE  LA  MOTTE    123 

— \ 

*  In  London,'  writes  M.  Pierre  de  Nolhac, 

*  Madame  de  La  Motte  published  her  odious 
Memoirs,  a  medley  of  passion  and  falsehood, 
which  dragged  the  crown  into  the  mud  of 
the    gutter.       Between    the    queen's    word  3 
and  the    word  of  the  adventuress   France 
hesitated.     Ere  long  she  ventured  to  make 
her    choice,    and    the    pamphlets    of    this*^ 
woman  caused  the  definitive  acceptance  of  ^ 
the  legend  of  Marie  Antoinette's  vices.     It 
was  in  them  that  Fouquier-Tinville  after- 
wards found  his  arguments,  on  them  that  he  ^ 
based  the  justice  of  his  cause.'     '  At   the 
court,  as  well  as  in  the  city,'  said  Maitre 
Labori  in  a  speech  at  the  advocates'  con- 
ference in  1888,  'every  one  showed  himself 
ready  to  credit  the  queen  with  every  form 
of  wickedness  and  vice,  and  the  legend  of 
her    debaucheries   has   not    even    yet   dis- 
appeared from  history.' 

And  yet  Maitre  Labori  himself,  devoted 
as  he  is  to  the  memory  of  Marie  Antoinette, 


124  y  CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

admits  that  the  countess  must  have  had 
relations  with  her.  We  affirm,  on  the  con- 
trary, that  she  never  had  with  the  queen 
any  connection  whatever,  of  any  sort,  at 
any  time.  The  queen  never  even  saw  her. 
Marie  Antoinette  wrote  on  August  22, 
1785,  to  her  brother  Joseph  11.:  *  This 
adventuress  of  the  lowest  class  has  no  place 
here,  and  has  never  had  access  to  my 
presence.'  *At  the  time  of  the  trial,'  says 
Madame  Campan,  '  the  queen  sent  for  some 
of  the  engravings  representing  Madame  de 
La  Motte.  She  never  even  remembered 
seeing  her  pass  through  the  gallery  at 
Versailles,  which  was  open  to  the  public, 
and  where  Madame  de  La  Motte  often 
showed  herself.' 

What  did  Rosalie,  the  countess's  maid, 
say  at  the  preliminary  inquiry  ? 

'  I  never  heard  anybody  in  the  house 
speak  of  any  relations  between  Madame  de 
La  Motte  and  the  queen.' 


LIFE  OF  MADAME  DE  LA  MOTTE    125 

What  did  Mademoiselle  Colson,  her 
companion,  say? 

'  I  spent  two  years  with  Madame  de  La 
Motte'  (at  the  very  time  of  the  Necklace 
intrigue)  *  and  never  saw  or  heard  anything 
to  lead  me  to  infer  that  there  were  relations 
between  the  queen  and  the  countess.' 

What  did  Marie  Anne  de  Saint-Remy, 
Jeanne's  sister,  declare  to  the  Abbe  Bew, 
who  sent  her  to  his  cousin  Bew  the  book- 
seller in  London,  the  publisher  of  Madame 
de  La  Motte's  Memoirs  ? 

*  Yes,  sir,  my  sister  herself  told  me  that 
the  letters  in  her  Memoirs  were  forged,  and 
that  the  greater  part  of  the  book  was  false. 
And  for  myself,  sir,  I  confidently  affirm  that 
my  sister  never  had  an  interview  with  the 
queen,  and  that  the  whole  story  is  absurd.' 

And  what  did  Madame  de  La  Motte 
herself  declare,  in  her  letters  and  cross- 
examination,  and  in  the  memorials  she  got 
her  advocate  to  draw  up  .-^     *  I   never  had 


126     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

the  honour  of  seeing  the  queen.'  '  I  never 
flattered  myself  on  having  any  credit  with 
the  queen/  '  I  know  nobody  who  was  in 
the  queen's  suite.'  *  The  Dame  de  La 
Motte,'  said  her  advocate  Maitre  Doillot, 
*  in  spite  of  a  name  everywhere  recognised, 
was  not  known  at  court,  and  had  no 
relations,  public  or  private,  with  the 
sovereign.'  And  further:  *  Is  there  any 
need  to  speak  of  another  fable,  that  inter- 
course with  the  queen  of  which  Madame 
de  La  Motte  is  said  to  have  boasted  as  of 
a  secret  correspondence  ?  The  countess 
would  be  highly  culpable  if  the  allegation 
were  true,  since  it  is  an  honour  she  never 
had.  She  humbly  beseeches  her  judges 
attentively  to  listen  to  the  reading  of  the 
depositions  in  regard  to  this  fable,  and  to 
mark  with  special  attention  the  firm  tone  in 
which  she  has  denied  it' 

After  such  a  mass  of  corroborative  testi- 
mony, can  the  least  doubt  still  remain  ? 


LIFE  OF  MADAME  DE  LA  MOTTE    127 

The  appearance  of  the  Memoirs  had  for 
its  first  result  the  loss  of  the  protection  and 
the  subsidies  of  the  English  lord,  who  had 
poured  out  his  heart  and  his  purse  at  the 
knees  of  this  poor  martyr  of  the  French 
courts.  He  was,  it  appears,  a  man  of  good 
sense,  and  the  victim  of  the  judicial  error 
appeared  to  him  thenceforth  less  inter- 
esting. 

After  breaking  with  the  lord,  she  quar- 
relled with  Calonne.  There  was  an  exciting 
scene.  The  two  lovers  were  playing  at 
piquet.  After  a  decisive  stroke  the 
ex-minister  cried,  *  Madame,  you  are 
marked ! '  The  unintentional  allusion  cut 
like  a  knife.  The  countess  had  a  hasty 
temper.  Quick  as  lightning,  she  over- 
turned the  table,  dashed  at  her  partner, 
and  then,  *  with  the  fair  hands  which  hither- 
to had  only  stroked  the  face  of  the  old 
beau,'  she  left  some  deep  marks  of  her  fury. 

The  Count  de  La  Motte  had  had  enough 


128     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

of  it.  He  took  advantage  of  the  disorders 
following  on  the  events  of  the  14th  of  July 
to  desert  his  wife  and  return  to  Paris.  He 
arrived  there  on  August  18,  1789.  From 
that  day,  the  correspondence  of  Madame 
de  La  Motte  with  her  husband  and  sister, 
the  latter  in  retirement  at  the  Abbey  of 
Jarcy,  furnishes  most  valuable  information. 

Marie  Anne  de  Remy,  described  as  a 
buxom  creature,  fair,  dull,  sweet-tempered 
and  indolent,  was  in  every  respect  the 
opposite  of  her  sister.     When,   on  June  2, 

1786,  she  heard  of  her  sister's  condemnation, 
in  her  grief  she  swallowed  a  phial  of  poison. 
The  Abbess  of  Jarcy  administered  remedies 
for  twelve  hours  in  succession,  while  the 
young  woman  was  contorted  with  frightful 
pain.    She  recovered,  and  on  September  20, 

1787,  the  Abbe  Pfaff  wrote  to  the  Countess 
de  La  Motte  in  London  about  her  : — 

*When  you  ask  your  sister  for  help,  I 
see  that  you  are  ignorant  of  her  sad  con- 


LIFE  OF  MADAME  DE  LA  MOTTE    129 

dition.  Her  state  of  health  is  worse  than 
death.  The  different  poisons  she  has 
swallowed  on  as  many  as  four  occasions 
since  June  2  last  year,  and  especially  on 
that  day,  owing  to  her  despair  about  you, 
have  led  to  such  a  state  of  continual  suffer- 
ing and  depression  of  spirits  that  it  is 
impossible  to  imagine  a  condition  more 
grievous  and  pitiable.  And  in  addition  she 
continues  to  be  in  great  want.'  All  she 
had  to  live  on  was  her  pension  of  800  livres. 
After  the  condemnation  of  Madame  de  La 
Motte,  Louis  xvi.  increased  it  by  2700  livres 
from  the  privy  purse. 

The  letters  addressed  by  Marie  Anne  to 
her  sister  Jeanne  from  the  moment  when 
the  latter,  deserted  by  her  husband,  re- 
mained alone  in  London,  in  abject  poverty, 
are  quite  touching. 

'Your  husband,'  she  wrote  early  in 
December  1789,  'has  left  you  in  distress. 
He   is   in    Paris,   where   he  is  said    to    be 

I 


130     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

telling  the  most  shameful  tales  about  you. 
Poor  thing!  These  are  the  people,  with 
their  bad  company  and  their  evil  counsels, 
who  have  ruined  you  !  The  Memoirs  they 
are  ascribing  to  you,  which  your  husband 
has  put  your  name  to  without  putting  his 
own,  so  that  he  can  disown  them  and  let 
you  bear  the  odium,  have  done  you  much 
harm.  Many  people  who,  like  myself,  be- 
lieved you  to  be  innocent,  as  you  assured 
me  you  were  in  the  Bastille,  have  been 
astonished  at  these  Memoirs,  I  can't 
believe  my  sister  capable  of  the  horrors 
they  contain,  for  they  contain  horrible 
things  against  my  father,  and  are  full  of 
lies.'  She  adds  that  she  intends  to  leave 
France,  and  pleads  with  Jeanne  to  come  with 
her.  Madame  de  La  Motte  had  informed 
her  that  she  was  working  at  some  fresh 
writings,  at  a  long  narrative  in  which  she 
would  unfold  the  whole  story  of  her  life, 
and  which  would  make  a  sensation. 


LIFE  OF  MADAME  DE  LA  MOTTE    131 

*  You  say  in  your  letter  that  you  are 
writing  your  life.  Alas!  what  good  will 
that  be  ?  It  is  said  you  are  only  doing  all 
this  to  gain  money.  Is  that  how  a  Valois 
should  try  to  regain  public  esteem  ? ' 

Marie  Anne  ended  with  an  entreaty : 
*  Listen  to  the  voice  of  honour  and  truth. 
Don't  reject  what  I  say.  It  is  the  heart 
that  speaks  to  you,  the  only  heart  still  left 
to  you,  which  tells  you  that  silence  is 
better  than  all  these  memoirs  in  which  you 
are  ruining  yourself.  If  you  will  return  to 
your  better  mind  and  follow  my  advice, 
you  will  find  in  your  sister  a  true  friend, 
who  only  wishes  your  good,  and  will  gladly 
share  with  you  all  that  she  has.  And  I 
would  suggest  that  we  should  finish  our 
days  together,  and  retire  to  Switzerland  or 
Italy,  or  to  some  German  principality,  where 
we  should  be  happy  and  free  and,  above 
all,  unknown.  With  my  little  fortune,  we 
shall  be  able  to  live  very  decently  in  the 


132     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

countries  where  life  is  cheap.  Alas !  my 
poor  dear,  how  I  wish  this  plan  might  please 
you  !  I  would  give  everything  in  the  world 
for  that  to  be,  and  I  should  be  happy  to 
have  my  sister  with  me,  recovered  from 
her  errors,  and  to  live  together  till  death.' 

Madame  de  La  Motte  replied  with  a 
reference  to  the  Almighty,  and  Marie 
Anne,  from  her  bed,  where  she  was  kept 
by  her  weakness  and  anxiety,  wrote  again 
on  December  15,  1789  : — 

*  I  have  just  received  your  beautiful  and 
godly  letter,  which  did  not  surprise  me, 
because  I  have  never  doubted  your  good 
feelings  so  long  as  you  are  away  from  bad 
company :  but  I  am  surprised  by  your  con- 
fession that  you  really  have  published  the 
Memoirs,  whereby  you  show  yourself  so  very 
culpable  and  forgetful  of  the  God  you  have 
to-day  so  often  at  the  point  of  your  pen.' 
She  goes  on  to  speak  of  the  evil  reports 


LIFE  OF  MADAME  DE  LA  MOTTE    133 

La  Motte  is  spreading  about  his  wife  in 
Paris.  He  is  leading  a  gay  life  at  the 
Palais  Royal,  in  a  very  expensive  suite  on 
the  second  floor. 

*  I  hope  your  distress  may  not  be  worse 
than  his,' says  Marie  Anne.  'Poor  thing! 
In  spite  of  your  approval  of  him,  I  can't 
bring  myself  to  pardon  the  principal  author 
of  my  poor  sister's  troubles.  I  might  also 
invoke  the  name  of  God,  like  you,  and, 
without  probing  deeper  into  this  dreadful 
business,  tell  you  constantly  that  God  is 
good  and  merciful,  that  you  must- hope  in 
His  loving-kindness,  and  that  He  will  not 
refuse  His  favour  to  the  submissive  and 
repentant  child,  as  you  say  so  well.  Well, 
my  sister,  why,  with  such  beautiful  religious 
sentiments,  why  want  always  to  set  people 
talking  about  you,  by  all  these  writings, 
which  will  end  in  ruining  you  before  God 
and  men  ?  With  true  repentance  you  may 
yet   hope,    as   you   say,    to   be   pitied   and 


134     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

respected ;  but,  I  tell  you,  you  will  not  do 
it  by  these  Memoirs.  I  am  your  sister  and 
friend,  don't  spurn  my  advice;  and  since 
you  tell  me  I  am  your  consolation,  and 
I  ask  nothing  better  than  to  help  to  make 
you  happy,  it  all  depends  on  yourself.  I 
would  give  my  life  to  succeed  in  this,  my 
dear  sister.  Renounce,  I  beseech  you, 
these  dreadful  memoirs  of  yours. 

*  I  am  much  disappointed  to  see  that  you 
do  not  approve  my  suggestion  that  we 
should  spend  the  remainder  of  our  days 
together — since  you  do  not  answer  on  that 
point.  Alone,  in  a  free  country,  where  we 
were  unknown,  we  could  live  respectably. 
I  confess  that,  though  I  repeat  the  sug- 
gestion, I  fear  you  will  still  oppose  it.  How- 
ever, I  don't  want  to  force  your  inclinations. 
What  I  say  to  you  is  said  at  the  dictation 
of  love  and  honour,  and  unhappily  you  do 
not  always  understand  what  those  words 
mean.      But    I    shall   never  reproach   you. 


LIFE  OF  MADAME  DE  LA  MOTTE    135 

Let  us  bury  the  past !  But  the  present 
should  guide  our  future  course.  I  blame 
nobody  but  the  wretches  who  have  led  you 
so  deep  into  wrong-doing.  I  should  be 
overwhelmed  with  joy  if  my  sister  at  last 
recognised  my  affection  and  had  some 
confidence  in  her  only  friend. 

*  Poor  sister  !  Remember  once  for  all 
that  your  greatest  enemy  now  is  yourself, 
and  that  your  one  friend  is  myself,  offering 
you  everything  I  have ! 

*  It  is  said  that  the  city  will  soon  resume 
its  payments,  and  I  shall  get  my  eighteen 
months'  arrears.  Then  I  will  send  you  some- 
thing, and  you  will  rejoin  me,  or  I  will 
come  to  you  if  you  like,  and  we  will  retire 
to  some  spot  where  we  can  still  live  and  be 
happy,  if  you  will  but  try. 

'Good-bye,  good-bye.  I  send  my  best 
love.' 

And  what  did  Madame  de  La  Motte 
reply  to  these  words,  sprung  from  so  real 


136     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

a  feeling,  so  sincere  an  affection  ?  We 
have  none  of  her  letters  to  Marie  Anne, 
but  we  have  those  she  wrote  to  her  hus- 
band. In  these  she  shows  herself  as  she 
was ;  we  see  her  at  last  in  her  true 
colours. 

*  I  was  in  such  haste  to  catch  the  post,' 
she  wrote  on  January  ii,  1790,  'that  I  had 
no  time  to  give  you  any  details  concerning 
the  moissonneuse^  (thus  she  calls  her  sister). 
*  I  have  received  only  two  letters  from  her ' 
(the  two  we  have  just  read).  '  In  the  first 
she  suggests  that  we  should  spend  our  last 
days  together,  in  Switzerland  or  Italy  where 
living  is  cheap  ;  says  she  would  be  happy 
if  I  approved  her  scheme ;  but  advises  me 
to  stop  publishing  memoirs,  and  says  she 
wants  to  know  how  I  am  placed,  so  that 
she  can  help  me.  She  tells  me  that  people 
in  Paris  are  saying  you  have  deserted  me, 
and  a  hundred  other  horrors.     As  I  know 

1  Properly  a  reaper,  harvester. 


LIFE  OF  MADAME  DE  LA  MOTTE    137 

these  precious  humbugs,  I  don't  care  a  rap 
for  them.  And  so  I  have  made  a  very 
brief  reply,  and  asked  nothing  for  myself, 
but  only  ten  guineas  for  that  monster 
Angelique.' 

The  '  monster  Angelique '  was  the  girl 
who  while  a  prisoner  in  the  Salp^triere  had 
devoted  herself  to  the  countess's  service. 
Like  Marianne,  the  companion  of  Madame 
de  La  Motte's  flight,  she  had  joined  the 
countess  in  England.  Both  had  taken 
service  with  her.  But  as  the  lady  did  not 
pay  them  their  wages,  and  they  were 
scandalised  at  what  went  on  in  the  house, 
they  had  left  her.  And  Angelique  was 
demanding  her  wages  so  that  she  might 
return  to  France. 

*  A  second  letter,'  continues  Madame  de 
La  Motte,  'arrived  on  December  15  :  dzs- 
graceful. ' 

This  is  the  letter  we  have  just  transcribed; 
the  word  disgraceful  is  underlined. 


138     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

'  A  hundred  more  offers,  to  be  fulfilled 
only  on  one  condition  :  that  there  are  no 
more  memoirs.  In  short,  she  treats  me 
horribly  badly.  And  you  are  the  hero  of 
the  business  ;  fancy,  you  are  the  sole  author 
of  it  all ;  and  so  she  runs  on  with  expres- 
sions worthy  of  such  a  pair  of  knaves '  (her 
sister,  and  the  abbe  Pfaff,  who  pitied  her 
condition  and  was  trying  to  do  something 
for  her).  *  Accustomed  to  deceive  every- 
body, they  are  really  working  for  my 
enemies,  as  I  have  told  them.' 

She  goes  on  to  say  that  the  abbe  had 
come  to  see  her  in  London. 

'  He  came  on  Sunday,  December  27,  at 
five  in  the  afternoon.  He  embraced  me 
— his  breath  stank  like  the  plague — and 
shook  hands  in  English  fashion.  He  re- 
mained till  ten  o'clock,  and  came  again  next 
day. 

'  The  same  impudent  rogue,  seeing  that  I 
abused  my  sister  so  roundly  in  regard  to  all 


LIFE  OF  MADAME  DE  LA  MOTTE    139 

the  money  she  enjoys  since  my  misfortunes, 
and  that  it  Httle  becomes  her,  in  making 
offers,  to  add  conditions  to  them,  when 
everything  she  has  is  mine ;  he  answered 
that  that  was  not  true,  that  it  was  the  king 
who  had  given  it  to  her.  But  the  king  has 
only  given  what  belongs  to  us.  She  has  an 
income  of  3200  livres,  which  are  certainly 
the  35,000  livres  from  the  Bastille.' 

(Louis  XVI.  had  indeed  thought  at  first 
of  giving  the  30,000 — not  35,000 — livres, 
which  the  stolen  Necklace  had  produced,  to 
Marie  Anne;  but  the  Cardinal  de  Rohan 
having  opposed  the  plan,  he  had  given  her 
a  pension  of  2700  livres  from  his  privy 
purse.) 

'And  this  monster,'  continues  Madame 
de  La  Motte,  speaking  of  Marie  Anne,  'has 
had  the  heart  not  to  come  to  her  sister's 
help,  but  is  supporting  a  rogue.  Ah  !  he ' 
(the  abbe  Pfaff)  *  is  costing  her  dear !  He 
told  me  they  had  three  children ;    and  that 


140     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

they  were  paying  800  livres  for  their  rooms. 
He  occupies  the  back  and  she  the  front. 
He  goes  to  her  as  soon  as  the  servants 
are  in  bed,  through  a  passage  under  the 
staircase,  which  leads  to  a  Httle  room 
belonging  to  the  moissonneuse  near  her 
bedroom.' 

It  is  unnecessary  to  remark  that  all  these 
details  are  the  product  of  Madame  de  La 
Motte's  imagination.  She  went  out  of  her 
way  to  spread  these  stories  and  to  write 
them  for  every  one  to  read. 

And  she  had  found  a  means  to  pro- 
cure the  money  she  so  badly  needed.  '  I 
shall  send  to  my  sister's,'  she  wrote  to  her 
husband,  'to  get  her  desk  opened  and  to 
steal  9500  livres.' 

This  curious  letter,  so  useful  in  fixing 
Madame  de  La  Motte's  character,  is  valu- 
able too  for  the  lines  with  which  it  closes. 
No  further  proof,   to  be   sure,   is  required 


LIFE  OF  MADAME  DE  LA  MOTTE    141 

that  Jeanne  stole  and  broke  up  the  Neck- 
lace. The  accumulation  of  facts  is  over- 
whelming. But  it  is  interesting  to  have  a 
formal  confession  from  her  own  hand.  In 
the  Memoirs  compiled  and  published  by 
herself  we  read  : — 

The  cardinal's  line  of  defence  bore  only  on  the 
alleged  eagerness  of  M.  de  La  Motte  to  carry  off, 
not  only  his  diamonds,  but  also  mine,  with  our 
silver  plate,  lace,  and  all  the  valuable  things  we 
had  ;  ought  not  Madame  de  Surmont  to  have  de- 
clared (Madame  de  Surmontwas  M.  de  La  Motte's 
aunt,  who  had  years  ago  taken  Jeanne  de  Valois 
into  her  house  at  Bar-sur-Aube)  that  it  was  false 
that  M.  de  La  Motte  had  carried  off  those  things 
with  the  idea  of  taking  flight,  since  he  had  in- 
trusted them  to  her  safe  keeping  ? 

And  further,  in  her  letter  of  January  11, 
1790,  to  her  husband,  Madame  de  La  Motte 
writes  : — 

And  don't  forget  that  jade  Madame  de  Sur- 
mont. For  she,  my  love,  she  is  the  cause  of  our 
misfortunes.     Don't   spare  her,  for   God's  sake  ! 


142     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

If  I  only  could,  I  don't  know  what  I  wouldn't  do 
to  her.  Remember  that  if  she  had  only  given  up 
our  diamonds  at  the  proper  time,  what  would 
there  have  been  to  condemn  us  ? 

The  diamonds  handed  over  by  Madame 
de  Surmont  w^ere  shown  to  Jeanne  de 
Valois  in  the  Bastille.  In  his  still  un- 
published Memoirs,  the  Count  de  La  Motte 
writes  : — 

These  earrings  (jewels  taken  in  exchange  in 
London  by  La  Motte  for  the  diamonds  of  the 
Necklace)  had  remained  at  Bar-sur-Aube,  with 
various  other  things,  as  well  as  all  the  jewels 
and  diamonds  belonging  to  Madame  de  La  Motte 
and  me.  All  these  things  were  shown  to  Madame 
de  La  Motte  when  she  was  examined  and  cross- 
examined. 

The  correspondence  of  Jeanne  and  her 
husband  went  on.  She  remarks  on  her 
sadness  and  her  constantly  increasing 
poverty.  '  Sorrow  is  incessantly  crushing 
me,  reducing  me    to   a   skeleton.'    Again  : 


LIFE  OF  MADAME  DE  LA  MOTTE    143 

*  I  am  very  ill,  my  love,  the  bile  is  torturing 
me  and  sorrow  eating  my  heart  out;  but 
courage  still  keeps  me  alive,  the  hope  of 
conquering  my  enemies  still  sustains  me.' 
The  count  appears  in  no  better  plight,  but 
Jeanne  roughly  stirs  him  up  :  *  O  my  love, 
drop  all  that  weak  talk  about  blowing 
out  your  brains.  Really,  you  are  a  dis- 
grace to  your  sex.'  He  must  live,  and  she 
gives  him  the  reason :  *  Live,  I  tell  you. 
For  myself,  I  'd  rather  become  a  servant 
than  give  my  enemies  pleasure  by  dying.' 


144     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 


X 

THE    PAMPHLETS 

It  was  about  this  time,  towards  the  end  of 
1789,  that  two  violent  booklets  appeared, 
written  by  Jeanne  de  Valois,  or  at  any  rate 
issued  in  her  name.  They  made  a  great  sensa- 
tion. These  were  her  Letter  to  the  Queen 
of  France  and  her  Petition  to  the  Nation 
and  the  National  Assembly  for  the  Revision 
of  her  Trial.  'Odious,  traitorous  woman,' 
she  wrote  to  Marie  Antoinette,  'listen, 
and  read  me,  if  you  can,  without  trembling. 
Ah,  how  you  must  blush,  you  who  have 
been  so  long  familiar  with  crime  and  shame. 
.  .  .  'Tis  from  the  depths  of  the  dark  abyss, 
whither  I  have  fled  for  shelter  from  your 
rage,  that  I  address  to  you  the  utterance  of 


THE  PAMPHLETS  145 

a  heart  weighed  down  by  grief.'  There 
is  no  need  to  quote  further.  To  the  nation 
and  the  Assembly  Jeanne  said  :  '  It  is  come, 
that  moment  so  much  desired,  that  moment 
for  which  I  would  have  given  a  thousand 
lives !  .  .  .  Yes,  Frenchmen,  whatever 
your  love  of  liberty  may  be,  my  soul  can 
still  challenge  yours.  You  have  not,  like 
me,  suffered  the  tortures  of  Despotism  after 
having  felt  its  perfidious  caresses.  .  .  . 
Tremble,  ye  villains ;  I  am  about  to  appear 
in  the  arena.  And  I  will  cause  to  appear 
with  me  her  (the  queen)  who  has  so  in- 
famously sacrificed  me.' 

Jeanne  was  in  fact  getting  ready  to  serve 
up  for  Marie  Antoinette,  and  all  her  enemies, 
real  or  imaginary,  a  new  dish  of  her  own 
invention.  This  was  the  Story  of  My 
Life,  the  great  work  in  which  all  who  had 
not  behaved  as  she  would  have  wished 
were  about  to  be  vilified  in  her  most  ac- 
complished   style.       Bew    the     bookseller 

K 


146     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

hoped  to  create  a  great  scandal.  He  ad- 
vanced two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  on 
receiving  the  manuscript.  Two  editions, 
one  in  French,  the  other  in  English,  both 
illustrated,  were  to  appear  simultaneously. 

Meanwhile  the  Revolution  was  progress- 
ing. *  I  know,'  wrote  Madame  de  La  Motte 
to  her  husband  on  December  14,  1790, 
'that  there  are  many  journals  in  Paris 
speaking  in  my  favour.'  And  she  adds, 
in  her  curious  style,  so  incorrect,  but 
singularly  expressive  :  *  After  a  certain  fine 
character  that  we  got  put  a  month  ago  into 
the  papers  for  the  queen,  I  don't  doubt 
there  'd  be  some  one  who,  for  a  fortune, 
would  desire  that  I  should  disavow  that  she 
is  the  dark  original,  so  as  to  win  back  for 
her  the  affection  of  the  people ;  but  on  my 
life,  for  all  the  crowns  in  the  world,  I  shall 
not  disavow  what  I  have  said  of  her,  and 
if  she  is  only  white  through  me,  she  will 
be  all  her  life   as  black   as  the  chimney.' 


♦ 


J-   iujsle  veritable  pke  Ducheine,  fouu 

GRANDE  VISITE 


D     E 


MADAME    LAMOTTE 


A  U 

PERE   DUCHESNE. 

M   A  L  A   D   E, 

SON    tTONNEMENT   D£    TROUVSR    AUPRts 
DE    SON     LIT    UN     BROC    DE     VIN     POUI. 

pri.sANNE.  Grand  malheur.  qui  leur. 
ARRIVE.  Description  de  sa  chambre. 


M 


ADAME  Lamdtte  douee  de  ce  caraftere 
renfible,  qui  eft  ordinairemcnt  }e  partage  des 
fenimes  galanfes  ,  fut  tr^s-fachee  de  I'accideut 


THE  GRANDE  VISITE  DE  MME.  DE  LA  MOTTE 
AU  PERE  DUCHESNE  MALADE 


Of    THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


THE  PAMPHLETS  147 

And  meanwhile  Madame  is  compiling  her 
book  in  a  manner  to  command  success.  *  I 
am  highly  flattering  the  French  people,' 
she  tells  the  Count  de  La  Motte.  And 
as  a  spice  of  anticlericalism  is  already  an 
assured  success,  she  does  not  fail  to  write 
that  'that  ass  the  abbe  Pfaff  says  of  the 
French  that  they  love  blood.' 

In  Paris,  Jeanne  found  numerous  assis- 
tants. Libels  poured  out  one  after  another, 
insulting,  infamous,  filthy.  The  Letter  of 
Madame  de  La  Motte  to  the  French,  the 
Conversation  between  M,  de  Calonne  and 
Madame  de  La  Motte,  the  Conference  between 
Madame  de  Polignac  and  Madame  de  La 
Motte,  the  Address  of  the  Countess  de  La 
Motte-  Valois  to  the  National  Assembly  ;  the 
Pere  Duchesne  series  :  Great  Visit  of  Pere 
Duchesne  to  Madame  Lamotte  and  Great 
Visit  of  Madame  Lamotte  to  Pere  Duchesne 
while  ill,  Declaration  of  Love  by  Pere 
Duchesne  to  Madame  Lamotte-  Valois,     The 


148     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

book-hawkers  read  them  aloud  at  the 
street- corners,  becoming  centres  of  gaping 
crowds. 

There  was  a  lower  descent  still.  There 
appeared  the  French  Messalina,  or  the 
Nights  of  the  Duchesse  de  Polignac,  the 
Private,  Libertine,  and  Scandalous  Life  of 
Marie  Antoinette,  the  Nymphomania  of 
Marie  Antoinette,  wife  of  Louis  XV L, 
Marie  Antoinette  in  trouble,  the  Last  Sighs 
of  the  Tearful  Wench,  the  National  B  .  .  . 
under  the  Auspices  of  the  Queen,  the  Royal 
B  .  ,  .  followed  by  a  Secret  Lnterview  be- 
tween the  Queen  and  the  Cardinal  de 
Rohan,  the  Presents  of  the  Goddess 
Hebe  to  the  Royal  Messalina,  the  Grand 
Fite  given  by  the  Mongrels  of  Paris  to  all 
the  p  ...  on  the  day  of  the  King  and  Queens 
arrival,  in  joy  at  the  rettcrn  of  their 
Father  and  Mother,  the  Rustic  Scenes  at 
Trianon.  These  filthy  pamphlets  were  in 
high  vogue ;  and  copies  were  sold  in  con- 


THE  PAMPHLETS  149 

siderable  numbers.  '  It  is  amazing,'  says 
a  writer,  *  to  see  this  impure  heap  of  libels 
pursuing  the  people  in  the  streets,  and 
spreading  our  shame  over  all  Europe.' 

But  the  queen  found  defenders  also  :  the 
Reply  to  the  Petition  of  Jeanne  de  Valois, 
the  Resurrection  of  the  Necklace  by  M, 
Lameth  and  Company,  the  Captain  Tempest 
to  Jeanne  de  Valois.  Addressing  himself  to 
the  countess,  the  captain  said :  *  I  admit 
that  in  a  moment  of  effervescence,  when  all 
the  heads  of  the  mob  are  excited,  when  all 
imaginations  are  on  fire,  it  is  easy  for  adroit 
and  powerful  villains  to  capture  the  minds 
of  the  people  by  flattering  their  passions,  to 
delude  them  as  to  their  true  interests  by 
covering  with  flowers  the  gulf  into  which 
they  wish  to  drag  them.  I  know  even 
that  sometimes  their  crimes  may  be  bought. 
Consult  your  constituents  and  you  will  learn 
something  of  this ;  or  rather  look  at  this 
moment  into  the  depths  of  your  own  heart ; 


ISO     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

you  will  find  there  the  great  truth  I  affirm  ; 
you  will  see  that  you  are  to-day  only  the 
passive  instrument  of  the  hate  and  venge- 
ance of  a  few  ambitious  men,  who  need 
the  resources  of  your  genius  to  fill  up  the 
measure  of  their  conspiracies.' 


REVOLUTIONARY  MOVEMENTS     151 


XI 

REVOLUTIONARY    MOVEMENTS 

Around  the  La  Mottes,  in  fact,  an  inter- 
esting party  was  disporting  itself.  The 
great  revolutionists,  Robespierre,  Marat, 
Hebert,  Sergent,  Panis,  Manuel,  were 
quick  to  perceive  the  capital  they  might 
make  of  the  Necklace  affair.  They  hovered 
about  the  Count  de  La  Motte,  '  got  him  to 
reveal  all  the  conduct  of  the  queen,  that 
audacious  woman,  who  had  drawn  on  her- 
self the  scorn  and  hatred  of  all  good 
Frenchmen.'  In  London,  the  agents  of 
the  Duke  of  Orleans  were  trying,  on  their 
part,  to  win  Jeanne  de  Valois  to  their  side. 
The  Court  was  warned  of  it,  and  en- 
deavoured to  ward  off  the  danger.     It  was 


152     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

a  curious  game.  On  the  king's  side  it  was 
led  by  Mirabeau,  whom  Louis  xvi.  had  just 
won  over  by  means  of  his  privy  purse, 
though  it  is  fair  to  say  that  Mirabeau  ap- 
pears to  have  been  sincerely  indignant  at 
the  intrigue  revealed  to  him.  *  I  know  no 
infamy,  in  these  times  so  fertile  in  villainy,' 
writes  the  Comte  de  La  Marck,  '  which 
would  have  disgusted  Mirabeau  like  this 
odious  machination.  It  made  him  boil  with 
rage,  and  redoubled  his  energy.  *'  I  will 
snatch  this  hapless  queen  from  her  tor- 
mentors," he  cried,  '*  or  perish."  At  this 
time  Mirabeau  threw  over  all  the  calcula- 
tions that  might  have  preserved  his  popu- 
larity ;  and  boldly  and  frankly  mounted 
into  the  breach  to  attack  the  enemies  of  the 
monarchy.' 

His  notes  for  the  Court  show  how  deeply 
the  great  orator  was  then  preoccupied  with 
the  intrigues  abrewing.  *  In  the  days  pre- 
ceding and  following  July  14,'  he  wrote  on 


REVOLUTIONARY  MOVEMENTS     153 

November  11,  1790,  'and  in  the  days  pre- 
ceding and  following  October  5  and  6,  the 
voice  of  Madame  de  La  Motte  was  able  by 
itself  alone  to  bring  about  a  horrible  crime.* 
He  goes  on :  'Is  the  Duke  of  Orleans  the 
sole  author  of  this  plot?  Is  he  only  the 
agent  of  La  Fayette  ?  Whatever  the  truth 
may  be,  the  Duke  of  Orleans  is  not  alone, 
though  he  may  be  in  the  forefront.  La 
Fayette  has  probably  not  appeared,  but  the 
Sdmonvilles  and  the  Talons  have  appeared  : 
it  is  their  doing,  the  finger-mark  of  the 
worker  is  plain.  Likewise  the  Lameths 
have  not  appeared  ;  but  they  have  let  fall 
hints,  perhaps  egged  on  a  d'Aiguillon,  a 
Muguet  de  Nantes,  a  Danton ;  and  they 
winked  at  things  rather  than  actually 
brought  them  about,  wishing,  whatever 
happens,  to  be  in  a  position  to  profit.  All 
these  people  can  be  foiled  if  we  only  adopt 
a  firm,  rapid,  and  persistent  course.  This 
horrible   plot   is  only  really  dangerous   as 


\^v-= 


154     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

long  as  we  are  afraid  to  probe  it.'  In  a 
note  dated  November  12,  he  continues  :  '  It 
is  no  longer  merely  to  gratify  the  public 
malignity  that  the  revision  of  Madame  de 
La  Motte  s  case  is  being  agitated  for ;  a 
direct  attack  on  the  queen  is  intended,  not 
to  appease  a  mere  feeling  of  resentment,  but 
to  obtain  other  successes  afterwards  when 
the  first  obstacle  is  surmounted.  It  would 
not  be  a  difficult  nor  an  unlikely  thing  to 
systematise  schemes  as  culpable.  Perhaps, 
after  having  disorganised  the  realm  and  de- 
stroyed all  the  sources  of  authority,  the  heads 
of  the  popular  party  recognise  that  they 
have  much  more  material  for  a  republic  than 
for  a  monarchy  ;  perhaps  they  are  struck  by 
the  impossibility  of  re-establishing  order 
without  giving  way  and  retracing  their 
steps :  and,  either  because  shame  holds 
them  back,  or  because  a  greater  ambition 
presents  itself  to  their  hopes,  they  prefer  to 
change    the   ancient   form    of  government, 


REVOLUTIONARY  MOVEMENTS     155 

which  it  is  almost  out  of  their  power  now 
to  consolidate.  In  this  scheme  the  queen, 
whose  character,  firmness,  and  clearness 
of  mind  they  know,  would  be  the  first 
object  of  their  attack,  both  as  the  first  and 
the  strongest  defence  of  the  throne,  and  as 
the  sentinel  who  is  most  assiduously  watch- 
ing over  the  security  of  the  monarch.  But 
the  great  art  of  such  ambitious  men  would 
be  to  conceal  their  aim.  They  would  wish 
to  appear  to  be  forced  on  by  events,  and 
not  to  direct  them.  After  having  made  the 
La  Motte  case  a  destructive  poison  to  the 
queen  ;  after  having  changed  the  absurdest 
calumnies  into  legal  proofs  capable  of  de- 
ceiving the  king ;  they  would  raise,  one  after 
another,  questions  of  divorce,  regency,  the 
marriage  of  kings,  the  education  of  the 
heir  to  the  throne.  In  the  midst  of  all 
these  discussions  and  all  these  contests  it 
would  be  easy  to  surround  the  king  with 
terrors,  to  make  the  burden  of  the  crown 


156     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

more  and  more  unendurable,  and  finally  to 
reduce  his  authority  to  such  an  empty  form 
that  he  would  himself  abdicate,  or  agree  to 
leave,  for  the  rest  of  his  reign,  his  power  in 
other  hands.  The  horrible  designs  I  am  only 
with  great  regret  describing  here,  certainly 
do  not  exceed  the  bounds  of  human  wicked- 
ness ;  in  this  respect  alone  the  La  Motte 
affair  would  be  formidable,  because  it  would 
form  part  of  a  veritable  conspiracy.'^ 

This  remarkable  page  was  well  worth 
quoting  in  its  entirety.  Mirabeau  con- 
cludes :  '  If  the  woman  La  Motte  is  not 
arrested  within  a  couple  of  days,  you  will 

^  It  is  very  curious  to  compare  this  note  of  Mirabeau 
with  the  following  passage  from  the  J^ep/j/  to  the  Petition  of 
Jeanne  de  La  Motte,  an  anonymous  pamphlet  published  at 
this  time  :  '  The  party  making  use  of  you  will  betray  them- 
selves by  their  madness.  This  is  what  they  will  do  :  they 
will  demand  from  the  National  Assembly  a  divorce,  and 
couple  this  demand  with  the  insults  dictated  to  you  against 
the  queen.  They  want  to  induce  the  people  and  the 
capital,  which  they  hope  to  cajole  with  talk  of  justice  and 
vengeance,  to  ask  the  king  to  separate  for  ever  from  the 
mother  of  his  children,  and  to  abandon  her  to  their  rage.' 


REVOLUTIONARY  MOVEMENTS     157 

have  to  change  your  procedure,  confine 
yourselves  to  keeping  an  eye  on  her,  find- 
ing out  her  plans,  her  connections,  her 
resources,  her  hopes,  without  having  her 
arrested,  so  as  to  avoid  scandal.  It  would 
be  possible,  with  some  ingenuity,  to  deceive 
this  woman,  crafty  as  she  may  be,  by  offer- 
ing her  protection  and  defenders  whom  she 
would  not  think  of  mistrusting.' 

Mirabeau's  plan  was  adopted  and  put 
into  execution  by  Louis  xvi.'s  expiring 
government  with  surprising  ability  and 
success.  Montmorin,  the  only  minister  left 
who  remained  favourable  to  the  king,  had 
succeeded  in  circumventing  the  Count  de 
La  Motte  to  such  an  extent  that  the  Count 
had  accepted  as  his  consulting  barrister  the 
head  of  the  royal  secret  police,  the  advocate 
Jacques  Claude  Martin  Marivaux,  who  was 
afterwards  condemned  to  death  by  the 
revolutionary  tribunal  for  performing  the 
functions  assigned  to  him  at  this  time. 


158     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

'  M.  de  La  Motte  has  returned  to  Paris,' 
we  read  in  Duquesnoy's  Journal,  under 
1790.  '  He  has  come  to  renew  his  attacks 
on  the  queen.  Happily  he  has  addressed 
himself  to  very  prudent  folk,  who  are  labour- 
ing to  hinder  his  proceedings.  There  is 
reason  to  believe  they  will  succeed.'  La 
Motte  swore  by  Marivaux. 

Another  revolutionary  group — Lameth, 
Barnave,  d'Aiguillon,  Menou — circled  round 
the  Jew  Bassenge,  to  whom  the  Cardinal 
de  Rohan  was  debtor  for  the  Necklace. 
They  invited  him  to  dinner,  and  commiser- 
ated an  honest  merchant  on  being  the  un- 
fortunate victim  of  a  cruel  court  intrigue. 
They  hinted  that  the  day  of  justice  was  at 
length  about  to  dawn,  and  that  the  scale 
would  not  incline  in  favour  of  kings.  They 
marked  out  his  course,  exhorting  him  to 
present  a  petition  to  the  Jacobins  to  per- 
suade the  National  Assembly  to  clear  him 


REVOLUTIONARY  MOVEMENTS     159 

in  the  eyes  of  the  nation.  But  how  was 
the  nation  concerned  in  a  purely  private 
matter?  In  this  way.  The  abbey  of  Saint- 
Vaast,  once  belonging  to  the  Cardinal  de 
Rohan,  and  now  part  of  the  national  pro- 
perty, could  no  longer  be  subject  to  the 
temporary  mortgage  assigned  by  the  royal 
order  to  Bassenge.  His  claim  was  sacred, 
and  became  one  of  the  king's  obligations,  an 
obligation  which,  like  the  rest,  ought  to  be 
placed  under  the  guardianship  of  the  nation. 
A  memorial  was  drawn  up  by  Tavernier. 
Menou  persuaded  his  companions  to  intro- 
duce additional  phrases  against  the  queen. 
*  It  was  proposed,'  writes  the  Count  de  La 
Marck  to  Mercy- Argenteau,  *  to  present 
this  petition  to  the  National  Assembly,  not 
to  make  the  nation  pay  Bassenge — every 
one  knows  that  is  impossible — but  to  lead 
to  a  discussion  in  which  it  will  be  main- 
tained that  the  Necklace  ought  to  be  paid 
for  out  of  the  civil  list,  which  is  only  an- 


i6o     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

other  way  of  having  the  case  retried. '  The 
jewellers  Bohmer  and  Bassenge  considered 
the  proposition  ;  but  this  important  way  of 
going  to  work  scared  them ;  they  would 
have  preferred  a  more  discreet  method,  and 
they  sent  to  the  royal  court  the  following 
note,  the  terms  of  which  should  be  noticed  : 
'  People  who  are  at  the  present  time  enjoy- 
ing a  certain  credit  are  apparently  interest- 
ing themselves  in  Bohmer  and  Bassenge. 
They  flatter  them  that  they  are  about  to  be 
rescued  from  the  extraordinary  situation  in 
which  they  find  themselves,  and  paid  in  full. 
But  Bohmer  and  Bassenge  fear  that  their 
patrons  are  only  wanting  to  serve  them  at 
the  expense  of  a  name  for  which  they  have 
the  greatest  veneration,  and  they  will  only 
put  themselves  in  the  hands  of  those  now 
courting  them  after  having  exhausted  all 
other  means.' 

The  court  learnt  through  its  agents  that 


REVOLUTIONARY  MOVEMENTS     i6i 

Jeanne  was  working  in  London  at  a  fresh 
pamphlet,  more  spiteful  and  scandalous  than 
the  first.  '  You  may  tell  your  advocate/ 
she  wrote  to  her  husband,  *  that  my  Lt/e 
will  before  long  be  given  to  the  public.  If 
I  read  it  to  him,  he  would  himself  see  what 
a  thunderbolt  this  work  will  launch  at  the 
heads  of  the  monsters,  the  authors  of  my 
disgrace.'  Jeanne  de  Valois,  however,  would 
be  only  too  glad  to  avoid  this  scandal  if  the 
court  would  find  the  right  means  of  per- 
suasion. '  Since  the  time  when,  by  a  sort 
of  miracle,'  she  wrote  herself,  'I  set  foot 
on  this  foreign  land,  where  freedom  smiles 
upon  misfortune,  I  have  done  all  I  could  to 
induce  Her  Majesty  to  believe  that  I  was  in 
possession  of  a  correspondence  the  publica- 
tion of  which  would  have  the  double  effect 
of  compromising  her  and  minimising  my 
faults.  In  each  of  my  letters  I  repeated 
that  *' since  it  had  pleased  Providence  that 
I  should  survive  that  multitude  of  horrors  ; 

L 


i62     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

since  it  had  saved  me  from  my  own  rages  ; 
its  intention  was  clearly  that  I  should  not 
perish  for  lack  of  the  means  of  subsistence  ; 
that,  in  the  plight  to  which  I  am  reduced,  I 
might  at  least  hope  that  the  queen  would 
have  restored  to  me  what  the  confiscation 
of  my  goods  and  effects  had  poured  into  the 
coffers  of  the  king." ' 

Meanwhile,  to  her  husband,  who  under 
Marivaux'  influence  was  insisting  that  she 
should  defer  the  printing  of  her  new  pam- 
phlet, she  wrote  at  once  :  *  You  desire,  my 
dear,  that  I  shall  not  write  my  Life,  or 
publish  it,  for  fear  of  offending  the  govern- 
ment :  learn  to  follow  the  advice  of  your 
defender,  but  try  to  understand  also  that 
I  don't  know  why  you  are  so  much  afraid. 
I  am  not  speaking  against  anybody,  and 
besides,  this  point,  I  am  tired  of  telling  you, 
doesn't  concern  you.  I  have  much  affection 
for  you,  but  in  this  matter  I  shall  follow 
my  own  inclination/ 


REVOLUTIONARY  MOVEMENTS     163 

Marivaux  considered  that  the  surest 
means  of  stopping  the  pubHcation  was  to 
have  Jeanne  de  Valois  at  Paris  within 
reach.  La  Motte  wrote  asking  her  to 
come,  insisting  on  it.  The  negotiations 
for  the  purchase  by  the  court  of  the  new 
pamphlet  would  be  much  easier  there. 
Madame  de  La  Motte  hesitated.  What 
about  the  Salpetriere  ?  '  What  strikes  me 
very  forcibly,'  she  answered,  '  is  that  if  it 
is  true  that  some  person  of  rank  is  bent  on 
my  silence,  for  the  tranquillity  of  Toinette, 
why  don't  they  come  where  I  am  and  make 
the  proper  arrangements  with  me  ?  Why 
is  my  presence  in  Paris  so  much  desired.'^ 
The  Salpetriere  has  not  been  destroyed ; 
consequently  they  might  throw  me  again 
into  their  loathsome  holes.' 

Since  she  refused  to  go  to  France, 
Marivaux  decided  that  some  one  should  go 
to  her,  and  keep  watch  upon  her  in  London, 
as    her    husband    was    being    watched    in 


i64     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

Paris.  He  sought  the  aid  of  Dubu  de 
Longchamp,  general  administrator  of  the 
post-office,  whom  she  had  once  met  at  the 
house  of  one  Mortsange,  and  who  wrote 
to  her  on  June  2,  1791,  pretending  to  share 
and  to  approve  her  fears  and  mistrust : — 

*  You  have  been  urged  to  come  to  Paris 
at  this  time.  I  am  not  at  all  in  favour 
of  your  coming.  You  must  wait  till  M. 
de  La  Motte's  affairs  are  settled,  till  your 
husband's  hopes  are  changed  into  certainties. 
He  is  opposed  to  a  scandal  which  would  be 
dangerous  without  being  useful.  Follow 
his  example,  madam.  Give  up  all  hope 
of  vengeance  for  the  firm  resolve  to  rest 
your  weary  head  on  a  peaceful  and  stable 
soil.  The  time  of  illusions  must  be  past. 
The  time  of  sorrow  is  sure  to  spend  itself. 
Devoted  as  I  am  to  the  relief  of  the  un- 
fortunate, I  shall  regard  it  as  delightful, 
madam,  to  be  useful  to  M.  de  La  Motte 
and  yourself.' 


THE  END  OF  JEANNE  DE  VALOIS     165 


XII 

THE    END    OF   JEANNE   DE   VALOIS 

On  June  10,  1791,  an  agent  of  Dubu  de 
Longchamp  named  Bertrand  left  Calais, 
to  assume  the  office  of  watchdog  over 
Madame  de  La  Motte,  and  to  take  care  that 
the  agents  of  the  revolutionist  factions,  of 
Marat,  Robespierre  and  Lameth,  and  of  the 
Duke  of  Orleans,  did  not  approach  her. 
He  arrived  on  the  13th.  A  horrible  drama 
had  just  been  enacted.  As  the  result  of 
proceedings  taken  against  her  by  a  creditor, 
an  upholsterer  named  Mackenzie,  Madame 
de  La  Motte  was  suddenly  visited  by  a 
number  of  constables.  In  her  half-frantic 
state,  the  vision  of  her  past  crimes  and 
punishments  rose  suddenly  before  her  mind  : 


i66     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

the  horrible  punishment  before  the  steps  of 
the  Palais  de  Justice,  the  shameful  letters 
burnt  into  her  smoking  flesh,  the  cells  of 
the  Salpetriere  ;  and,  with  a  movement  of 
terror,  as  though  impelled  by  the  force 
of  Fate,  she  had  opened  the  window,  and 
flung  herself  down  from  the  second  story 
on  to  the  pavement.  Unconscious,  with 
mangled  limbs,  she  had  been  picked  up 
by  a  perfumer  named  Warren,  who  lived 
opposite  Lambeth  Street,  near  Westminster 
Bridge. 

*When  I  entered  her  room,'  wrote 
Bertrand  to  Dubu  on  June  13,  1791, 
*  she  began  to  work  on  my  feelings.  She 
lifted  the  bedclothes  so  that  I  might  see 
her  injuries.  There  was  never  seen  any- 
thing so  horrible.  Her  thigh  is  broken 
about  the  middle,  one  leg  is  broken  at  the 
knee,  and  both  are  in  splints.  Deposits 
of  purulent  matter  are  forming,  and  the 
surgeon  was  obliged  to  make  incisions  in 


THE  END  OF  JEANNE  DE  VALOIS     167 

order  to  allow  suppuration.  Her  whole 
body  is  dark  yellow  in  colour,  from  head 
to  foot.'  She  was  in  the  deepest  want, 
having  absolutely  nothing  to  live  on. 
Eighteen  months  before  she  had  received 
one  hundred  and  seventy  guineas  in  advance 
for  her  new  Memoirs,  on  which  she  had 
supported  life  since.  She  was  now  wholly 
dependent  on  the  charity  of  Mr.  Warren, 
and  that  was  beginning  to  wear  out. 

Her  condition  grew  worse  and  worse. 
*A  whitish  spot,'  wrote  Bertrand  on  June 
21,  'has  appeared  on  the  thigh.  After  a 
poultice,  a  considerable  swelling  formed, 
which  burst  and  flooded  her  thigh  with 
pus  of  a  disgusting  odour,  and  the  matter 
was  so  abundant  that  five  saucerfuls  of  it 
were  thrown  away.  When  I  went  in,  the 
smell  was  unendurable,  though  a  lot  of 
brown  paper  had  been  burnt  and  all  the 
windows  were  open.' 

Warren  the  perfumer  was  a  decent  man, 


i68     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

but  a  little  hardhearted.  He  reckoned 
that  the  sick  woman  was  costing  him  a 
good  deal  of  money,  and  began  to  be  afraid 
that  it  would  never  be  reimbursed.  '  When 
all  is  said  and  done,'  he  wrote  to  Dubu  de 
Longchamp,  '  I  haven't  the  means  to  con- 
tinue supporting  her.  To  me,  the  duties  of 
a  husband  and  father  come  before  those 
of  friendship.'  He  asked  Jeanne  roughly 
on  her  bed  of  suffering  what  had  become 
of  her  husband  and  the  fine  friends  of 
whom  she  was  always  talking,  but  none 
of  whom  appeared.  'This  Bertrand,'  he 
said,  *  who  never  leaves  your  bedside,  is 
one  of  your  old  lovers.'  He  reproached 
her  with  the  linen  she  was  soiling,  and 
refused  to  pay  the  nurse  attending  her. 

In  Paris,  events  were  hurrying  on.  The 
general  restlessness  was  extreme.  Bertrand 
received  no  news  from  Dubu  de  Long- 
champ.  *  The  sick  woman,'  he  wrote, 
*  would  like  to  have  some  assistance,  being 


THE  END  OF  JEANNE  DE  VALOIS     169 

absolutely  destitute.  I  do  all  that  I  can 
to  persuade  her  that  her  affairs  are  in  the 
best  possible  condition  ;  but  she  is  as  much 
astonished  as  I  am  at  getting  no  news/ 

Bertrand's  mission  was  not  merely  to 
keep  an  eye  on  Madame  de  La  Motte,  but 
to  prevent  the  appearance  of  her  book, 
The  Life  of  Jeanne  de  Saint-Rdmy  de 
Valois,  Countess  de  La  Motte.  Six  thousand 
copies  had  been  printed,  of  which  four 
thousand  were  for  the  booksellers  of  Paris, 
and  a  thousand  for  those  of  London  and 
Holland ;  while  a  thousand  copies  of  an 
English  translation  had  also  been  printed. 
Bertrand  opened  negotiations.  The  publica- 
tion, though  announced  in  the  London 
journals,  was  delayed.  Madame  de  La 
Motte,  who  was  to  have  signed  every 
copy,  put  it  off  from  day  to  day  under 
pressure  from  Bertrand,  who  announced 
that  money  was  being  sent  to  her.  But 
the  money  did  not  come. 


170     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

Meanwhile  Warren  was  worrying  the 
patient.  There  were  unpleasant  scenes, 
and  she  wept  bitterly.  '  It  is  easily  seen,' 
observes  Bertrand,  '  that  it  is  only  the  fear 
of  losing  what  she  owes  him  that  keeps  him 
at  all  civil.' 

'  I  had  yesterday  with  the  patient,'  wrote 
the  correspondent  of  Dubu  de  Longchamp 
on  July  29,  '  a  scene  for  which  my  courage 
was  not  prepared.  I  will  tone  down  its 
deplorable  colours  for  you.  She  told  me 
that  she  was  quite  convinced  I  had  only 
come  to  London  to  make  her  perish  in  the 
most  outrageous  manner;  that  it  was  to 
take  from  her  her  hard-earned  bread  that 
we  had  thought  of  delaying  the  publication 
of  her  work,  which  was  her  only  means  of 
subsistence ;  that  she  would  have  gladly 
pardoned  me  if  I  had  plunged  a  knife  into 
her  heart ;  that  all  that  was  left  to  her, 
after  revenging  herself  on  you  and  me,  was 
to  end  her  unhappy  existence  as  promptly 


THE  END  OF  JEANNE  DE  VALOIS     171 

as  possible.  I  believe  that  if  her  strength 
had  permitted,  she  would  have  accomplished 
so  cruel  a  design.  ''Judge  yourself,"  she 
said  to  me,  "how  much  faith  I  should 
repose  in  your  lies.  I  will  sign  to-morrow 
the  copies  of  my  book,  and  don't  be 
offended  if  I  take  all  necessary  measures 
to  secure  compensation  for  your  perfidy, 
and  for  the  lamentable  plight  in  which 
the  delay  in  the  appearance  of  my  work, 
due  to  you,  has  thrown  me." 

*  I  let  her  have  her  say  out,'  adds 
Bertrand.  *  I  let  her  cries  and  tears  pass 
in  silence.  The  fever  came  upon  her  at 
that  moment,  with  a  dreadful  shivering. 
This  is  only  a  slight  sketch  of  this  over- 
powering scene.' 

From  that  moment  the  poor  woman's 
state  grew  rapidly  worse.  On  August  5 
Bertrand  wrote,  *  The  patient  is  nearing  the 
end.' 

Jeanne     de     Saint -R6my     de     Valois, 


172     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

Countess  de  La  Motte,  died  on  Tuesday, 
August  23,  1 79 1,  at  eleven  o'clock  in  the 
evening,  in  frightful  anguish.  The  night 
before,  she  had  been  seized  with  vomitings 
and  convulsions,  which  never  left  her  till 
the  end.  She  was  buried  on  August  26, 
in  the  churchyard  of  St  Mary's,  Lambeth.  ^ 

Warren  wrote  at  once  to  the  Count  de 
La  Motte  announcing  the  sad  event.  A 
few  friends  accompanied  the  coffin.  '  I 
had  her  buried  in  Lambeth  church,  and 
reserved  the  right  for  her  friends,  if  they 
are  disposed  to  take  advantage  of  it,  to 
erect  a  monument  over  the  remains  of  the 
most  affectionate  wife,  sister,  and  friend  that 
ever  lived.' 

^  On  page  2009  of  the  parish  register  the  name  is  given 
as  '  Jean  Saint-Rymer  de  Valois,  Countesse  de  La  Motte.' 
'  Madame  de  La  Motte  died  on  Tuesday  after  suffering  a 
martyrdom.  She  is  buried  to-day.'  (Note  of  August 
26,  1 791,  signed  W.  Harris,  to  Dubu  de  Longchamp. 
Archives  nationales^  F.  7/4445.)  The  Courrier  de  P Europe, 
published  in  London,  announced  her  death  on  the  same 
day,  August  26,  as  also  did  the  London  Chronicle. 


THE  END  OF  JEANNE  DE  VALOIS     173 

The  Count  de  La  Motte  made  no  reply. 
Warren  wrote  a  second  time,  detailing  the 
expenses  he  had  incurred.  The  count  was 
less  likely  to  reply  than  ever.  Warren  re- 
presented to  him  that  he  was  not  behaving 
like  a  gentleman.  And  still  La  Motte 
answered  nothing. 

The  unfortunate  Bertrand  had  left  London 
before  the  death  of  the  countess.  To  Dubu 
de  Longchamp,  who  had  intrusted  him  with 
the  mission  he  had  carried  out  in  London, 
he  wrote  :  *  I  leave  this  evening,  August  1 9. 
I  have  the  honour  to  ask  you  to  send  me 
some  money  to  the  poste  restante  at  Calais. 
You  will  prolong  my  wretched  existence. 
God  knows,  if  you  don't  send  me  the  means 
of  returning,  I  shall  have  to  beg  my  bread 
on  the  highway.  My  soul  is  grievously 
disturbed,  as  my  wife  can  do  nothing  for 
me.     I  am  leaving,  trusting  to  Providence.' 


174     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 


XIII 

THE    HALL    OF   VENUS 

The  Life  of  Jeanne  de  Saint-Rdmy  de  Valois, 
the  publication  of  which  had  occupied  and 
tormented  the  poor  woman  to  the  hour  of 
death,  and  to  which  she  had  owed  her  last 
resources,  was  sent  from  London  to  the 
bookseller  Gueffiier,  on  the  Quai  des 
Augustins  in  Paris.  After  having  read  the 
story  of  her  lamentable  end,  he  was  still 
more  saddened  to  set  eyes  on  this  dreadful 
pamphlet.  The  theme  of  it  was  as  follows  : 
Marie  Antoinette  had  conceived  an  affec- 
tion for  her  cousin,  Jeanne  de  Valois,  from 
the  day  when  she  saw  her  faint  under  her 
windows.  She  had  made  her  the  con- 
fidante of  her  most  secret  thoughts.     That 


THE  HALL  OF  VENUS  175 

was  how  it  was  that  Jeanne  had  become 
the  intermediary  between  her  and  the 
Cardinal  de  Rohan,  the  Iris  messenger  of 
their  amours.  The  meetings  took  place 
at  night,  between  eleven  and  midnight,  at 
Trianon,  in  the  hall  of  Venus,  which 
Madame  de  La  Motte  thus  describes :  '  An 
elegant  apartment,  round  in  form,  sur- 
mounted by  a  dome,  is  situated  in  the 
gardens  of  Petit-Trianon,  on  an  eminence 
which  you  reach  by  a  gentle  slope.  The 
building  is  surrounded  by  a  moat,  which 
the  cardinal  and  myself  used  to  cross  by 
means  of  a  plank  thrown  over  it  for  that 
purpose.  In  the  middle  of  the  room  stood 
a  pedestal  of  white  marble,  a  superb  statue 
representing  Apollo  or  Venus.  In  the 
corners  are  other  statues — these  are  Cupids 
and  Graces.  The  doors  are  of  glass.  You 
descend  from  the  hall  to  the  gardens  by 
four  marble  steps.  At  the  windows  are 
curtains  of  the  finest  damask,  spotted  with 


176     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

embroidered  flowers.  There  are  tapestries, 
arm-chairs,  sofas.' 

To  that  spot,  when  the  king  happened 
to  be  hunting  at  Rambouillet,  Jeanne  used 
to  lead  the  cardinal  to  the  queen,  who 
awaited  him  on  a  couch. 

Criticism,  studying  the  Life  of  Jeanne  de 
Saint-Rdmy,  has  remarked  that  no  hall 
existed  at  Trianon  called  the  hall  of 
Venus,  no  apartment  resembling  even  dis- 
tantly the  description  given  by  Madame 
de  La  Motte.  During  the  winter  of  1784, 
when  these  meetings  were  said  to  have 
taken  place,  Marie  Antoinette  never  went 
to  Trianon.  On  the  days  mentioned,  the 
king  was  not  hunting  at  Rambouillet.  We 
have  a  journal  in  Louis  xvi.'s  own  hand, 
in  which  all  his  movements  are  precisely 
recorded.  Is  there  any  need  to  dwell  on 
the  point?  The  book  ends  with  a  series 
of  letters  in  which  the  queen  and  the 
cardinal  tell  each  other  of  their  love.     Will 


THE  HALL  OF  VENUS  177 

any  one   venture    to   maintain   that    these 
letters  are  authentic  ? 

The  court  succeeded  in  having  the  books 
seized.  The  Count  de  La  Motte  himself 
revealed  where  they  were  warehoused. 
*  Without  compromising  anything,'  he  wrote 
to  the  king  on  May  5,  1792,  '  I  could  claim 
and  get  from  the  hands  of  the  malevolent 
the  weapon  they  wish  to  make-  use  of 
to-day  in  furtherance  of  their  projects.' 
Laporte,  controller  of  the  civil  list,  bought 
the  complete  edition  for  14,000  livres 
from  the  king's  own  funds.  On  May  26, 
1792,  he  had  them  thrown  into  the  furnace 
at  the  Sevres  porcelain  manufactory,  tied 
up  in  thirty  bundles.  They  were  burning 
for  five  hours.  Everything  was  consumed. 
The  municipal  officers  at  once  informed 
the  National  Assembly,  and  the  Pere 
Duchesne  began  to  fulminate  against  the 
intrigues  of  the  court.  Laporte  was  sum- 
moned  to   the   bar  of  the  Assembly.      It  j 

M 


1/8     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

was  declared  that  he  had  destroyed  in 
the  Sevres  furnace  the  correspondence  of 
Marie  Antoinette  with  enemies  of  the  state, 
and  packets  of  false  notes  she  had  had 
made  in  London.  Soon  afterwards,  a  copy 
of  the  book,  found  at  Laporte's  house,  was 
taken  to  the  offices  of  the  Committee  of 
Surveillance,  which,  composed  of  strong 
'patriots,'  at  once  got  the  work  reprinted 
and  put  on  sale  at  Garnery's.  In  these 
days  no  respectable  man  could  read  its 
pages  without  a  feeling  of  nausea;  but 
at  that  time,  men's  passions  seasoned  it 
with  the  spice  necessary  to  permit  its 
digestion.  In  the  Hall  of  Venus,  adorned 
with  Cupids  and  Graces,  behind  the  flower- 
embroidered  curtains,  on  a  sofa  of  figured 
silk  inwoven  with  fine  gold,  the  skirts  of  a 
Queen  of  France  trailed  the  floor  with  the 
scarlet  folds  of  a  cardinal's  robe  :  what  a 
treat  for  the  men  of  that  day ! 

*At  that  moment,'  write  the  Goncourts, 


THE  HALL  OF  VENUS  179 

*  Madame  de  La  Motte's  libel  made  its 
reappearance  in  France.  Montmorin,  the 
only  royalist  minister  left  to  Louis,  defend- 
ing the  queen  one  day  in  the  council ;  and 
complaining,  timidly  at  first,  to  Duport 
du  Tertre  of  the  threats  levelled  at  her, 
and  of  the  plot  to  assassinate  her  openly 
avowed  by  a  considerable  party,  and  ending 
by  asking  his  colleague  if  he  would  allow 
such  a  crime  to  be  consummated,  Duport 
coldly  replied  that  he  would  not  counten- 
ance an  assassination,  but  that  he  would 
not  look  with  the  same  disfavour  on  a  trial, 
if  that  were  suggested.  **What!"  cried 
Montmorin,  ''you,  a  minister  of  the  king, 
would  consent  to  such  an  infamy  ?  "  **  But 
what  if  there  is  no  other  means  ?  "  returned 
the  keeper  of  the  seals.' 

The  opportunity  sought  by  Duport  was 
about  to  be  provided  by  the  Count  de  La 
Motte,  who  was  urging  the  revision  of  his 
trial.     The   turn  taken   by  events   robbed 


i8o     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

the  king  of  his  means  of  action,  and  the 
count  escaped  the  influence  of  his  advisers. 
'The  course  for  me  to  pursue,'  he  wrote 
to  Montmorin,  '  reduces  itself  to  two  very- 
simple  points: — (i)  to  place  myself  in  a 
position  to  get  a  decision  on  my  contumacy ; 
(2)  to  plead  for  the  quashing  of  the  decree 
that  branded  my  wife,  and  to  sue  the 
judges  and  the  minister  who  used  the 
secrecy  of  the  Bastille  to  lead  her  to  her 
ruin.' 

He  wrote  to  the  keeper  of  the  seals  : 
*  A  party  once  powerful,  in  order  to  ruin 
my  wife,  more  weak  than  criminal,  united 
the  greatest  instruments  of  despotism — the 
Bastille,  and  the  judges  in  the  pay  of  the 
court.  The  Bastille  no  longer  exists,  and 
the  French  people  is  about  to  choose  judges 
who  would  blush  to  allow  themselves  to 
be  led  step  by  step  into  the  labyrinth  of 
Themis  by  an  insolent  and  ferocious  vizier.' 

Besides,    was    not    special    consideration 


THE  HALL  OF  VENUS  i8i 

due  to  the  La  Mottes  ?  '  The  sentence  by 
which  we  were  condemned,'  said  the  count, 
'was  the  signal  for  the  astonishing  revolu- 
tion which  was  brought  about  with  so  much 
facility  by  the  corruption  of  the  court,  the 
disorder  of  the  finances,  and  the  tyranny 
of  those  who  shared  the  public  power. 
There  is  a  Providence  which  delights  to 
direct  the  destiny  of  mortals,  and  which 
causes  germs  destructive  to  the  power  of 
tyranny  to  spring  from  the  blood  of  the 
innocent ! ' 

The  Count  de  La  Motte,  however,  pru- 
dently waited  till  1792,  when  the  Revolution 
was  in  full  swing,  to  present  himself  at 
the  Conciergerie  as  a  prisoner,  in  order 
to  purge  himself  of  his  contumacy.  He 
was  incarcerated  on  January  4.  On  the 
following  night,  between  two  and  three 
o'clock,  the  prison  caught  fire.  The  Pere 
Duchesne  hastened  to  inform  France  that 
this  was  an   incendiary   feat  instigated  by 


i82     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

the  court  for  the  purpose  of  burning  La 
Motte  and  his  papers ;  and  Robespierre, 
Hubert,  and  Manuel  hastened  up  and 
rushed  into  the  prison. 

*  Rest  easy  for  the  present/  said  Manuel 
to  the  count,  '  we  are  looking  after  you.' 

Jeanne  de  Valois'  husband  published  in 
his  turn  a  memorial  in  his  own  defence, 
when  his  case  came  before  the  third 
tribunal.  Meanwhile  a  revulsion  seems 
to  have  taken  place  in  his  soul,  in  which 
feelings  of  this  sort  found  little  lodging 
as  a  rule — unless  perhaps  this  too  was  a 
means  in  his  eyes  of  extorting  money. 
However  that  may  be,  he  wrote  to  the 
king  on  May  5,  1792  :  *  A  cabal,  which  is 
offended  at  my  prudence,  would  like  to 
make  a  dangerous  scandal  out  of  this  affair. 
The  Sieur  Deplane,  president  and  judge, 
was  appointed  to  examine  me.  His 
questions  had  no  other  aim  than  to  seek 
to  compromise  the  queen,   and  principally 


THE  HALL  OF  VENUS  183 

to  find  some  means  of  bringing  her  before 
the  court  as  a  necessary  witness  to  the 
facts;  and  the  curious  pubHc  fell  into  the 
trap.'  The  case  was  remitted  to  the  first 
court,  which,  on  July  20,  1792,  quashed 
the  sentence  of  June  i,  1786,  by  which 
the  Count  and  Countess  de  La  Motte  had 
been  condemned  by  the  Parlement,  *  seeing 
that,'  said  the  new  judgment,  '  the  indictment^ 
submitted  by  the  procurator-general  to  the 
quondam  Parlement  of  Paris,  on  Septem- 
ber 7,  1785,  is  only  signed  at  the  end 
and  not  on  each  leaf,  which  is  contrary  to 
the  law.'  Thus  the  sentence  was  quashed 
for  a  technical  irregularity.  La  Motte  was 
again  brought  before  a  jury. 

Other  judges  were  lying  hungrily  in  wait 
for  the  queen. 


i84     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 


XIV 

THE    DEATH    OF    THE    QUEEN 

The  capture  of  the  Bastille  on  the  four- 
teenth of  July  had  opened  the  door  to 
popular  passion.  Taine's  idea  is  profoundly 
true :  it  was  the  Jacobin  conquest.  As 
scholarship  becomes  better  informed,  and  its 
impartiality  increases,  the  great  historian's 
conception  will  be  confirmed  by  fresh  proofs. 
On  October  6,  yelling  mobs  streamed 
out  of  Paris  towards  Versailles  and  poured 
into  the  palace ;  women,  their  hair  matted 
with  dust  and  sweat,  screamed  for  the 
'entrails  of  the  queen.'  'Madam,  save 
the  queen !  '  cried  one  of  the  guards, 
running  to  one  of  her  waiting-women,  his 
face    stained   with   blood.       Next   day   the 


THE  DEATH  OF  THE  QUEEN      185 

mob  dragged  the  royal  family  to  Paris, 
surrounding  their  slow-going  carriages  with 
ribald  jests  and  obscene  insults.  On  the 
driver's  seat  of  the  coach  In  which  the 
queen  sat  with  her  boy,  the  actor  Beaulieu 
amused  the  crowd  and  scared  the  occupants 
with  his  mountebank  s  antics.  The  queen 
sat  dry-eyed,  silent,  immoveable,  seemingly 
lost  in  a  dream.  '  I  am  hungry,  mamma,' 
said  the  little  dauphin,  and  then  the  tears 
came. 

The  20th  of  June  1792  was  a  repetition 
of  the  October  day.  The  royal  family  were 
at  the  Tuileries.  At  half-past  four  in  the 
afternoon  the  cries  of  the  mob  enveloped 
the  palace  like  rolling  thunder.  The 
National  Guards  had  barely  time  to  hurry 
the  queen  into  the  council-chamber  before 
the  human  flood  burst  upon  them.  They 
dragged  the  long  table  in  front  of  the  queen 
and  her  children,  whom  only  three  feet  of 
deal  separated  from  faces  crimson  with  rage 


i86     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

and  wine,  clenched  fists,  and  brandished 
pikes.  '  The  queen  stood  erect,'  write  the 
brothers  De  Goncourt,  '  with  Madame  on 
her  right,  pressing  close  against  her.  The 
dauphin,  his  eyes  wide  open  in  a  childish 
stare,  was  on  her  left.  Men,  women,  pikes, 
knives,  yells,  insults,  all  poured  in  one 
torrent  towards  the  queen.  One  of  these 
cannibals  displayed  a  bundle  of  switches, 
with  the  legend  ''  For  Marie  Antoinette"; 
another  flourished  a  miniature  gibbet  with 
a  doll  swinging  upon  it ;  another  thrust 
forward  under  the  very  eyes  of  the  queen, 
who  did  not  blench,  a  dish  bearing  a  mass 
of  bleeding  flesh  shaped  like  a  heart. 
Some  one  else  flung  red  caps  upon  the  heads 
of  the  queen  and  her  son.  Women  all 
dishevelled  spat  their  filthy  jests  in  her 
face,  to  be  answered  in  her  gentle  voice  : 
"Have  you  ever  seen  me?  Have  I  ever 
done  you  any  harm  ?  You  are  mistaken  : 
I  am  a  Frenchwoman.     I   was  so   happy 


THE  DEATH  OF  THE  QUEEN      187 

when  you  loved  me !  "  And  at  this  sweet, 
sad  voice,  at  this  fair,  sorrowful  face,  the 
storm  was  calmed,  the  fury  sank  abashed. 
Pity  softened  these  hard  hearts ;  humanity 
became  itself  again.  The  squalling  viragoes 
held  their  peace,  and  even  felt  their  tears 
flow.  '*They  have  had  their  fill,"  cried 
Santerre,  shrugging.  And  he  drew  near, 
leant  upon  the  table  and  jeered ;  but  even 
his  lips  closed,  involuntarily,  before  the 
quiet,  searching  gaze  of  the  queen.  To 
cover  his  confusion  the  man  growled : 
''Take  that  child's  cap  off,"  pointing  to 
the  dauphin  :  ''see  how  hot  he  is  !  "  This 
was  the  poor  child  who,  next  day,  when 
the  guards  were  called  to  arms,  asked  : 
"  Mamma,  is  it  yesterday  again  ?  "  "  They 
will  murder  me,"  said  the  queen  a  little 
later  :  "  what  will  become  of  my  children  ?  " ' 
Under  the  palace  windows  disgusting 
prints  were  being  hawked  about,  and 
pamphlets  written  against  her  in  mud  from 


i88     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

the  gutters.  The  terrace  of  the  Feuillants 
had  been  thrown  open  to  the  people  by  the 
Assembly,  and  you  may  be  sure  they  made 
good  use  of  it !  From  morning  to  night 
the  talk  there  was  so  horrible  that  the 
queen  was  twice  obliged  to  withdraw. 
Sometimes — such  was  her  spirit — she 
wished  to  descend  to  the  garden  and  speak 
to  the  people  :  *  I  will  tell  them  that  I  love 
them,  and  that  I  am  a  Frenchwoman.  Not 
love  the  French! — I,  the  mother  of  a 
dauphin !  *  But  her  illusions  were  soon 
dispelled  :  calumny  had  struck  its  roots  too 
deep.  What  availed  the  voice  of  one  lonely 
woman  against  the  tempest  ? 

On  August  lo  Louis  xvi.  and  his  family, 
terrified  at  the  popular  rising,  took  refuge 
in  the  bosom  of  the  Assembly.  '  I  have 
come  here,'  said  the  king,  'to  prevent  a 
great  crime.'  He  placed  himself  at  the 
president's  left,  and  Marie  Antoinette  had 
made  the  dauphin  sit  by  her  side.     *  Some 


THE  DEATH  OF  THE  QUEEN      189 

one  take  him  up  to  the  president,'  cried  a 
voice :  *  he  belongs  to  the  nation.  The 
Austrian  woman  is  unworthy  of  his  con- 
fidence ! '  And  an  usher  seized  the  child, 
weeping  with  terror  and  clinging  to  his 
mother's  skirts.  In  the  night  the  king  and 
queen  proceeded  to  the  Feuillants.  By  the 
light  of  candles  stuck  on  the  muzzles  of 
muskets,  their  feeble  rays  glinting  on  the 
blood-stained  steel  of  pikes,  the  queen 
walked  slowly  between  the  close  ranks  of 
the  crowd,  whence  rose  the  refrain — 

'  Madame  Veto  avait  promis 
De'faire  ^gorger  tout  Paris.' 

The  sentinels  had  much  ado  to  hold  the 
throng  back.  When  one  of  the  queen's 
women  appeared  at  the  door  of  the  cells 
of  the  ancient  convent,  which  had  been 
hastily  furnished,  she  was  driven  back  by 
yells.  Beneath  the  windows  arose  cries  of 
'  Death  to  the  queen  ! '     *  Every  time  that  I 


190     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

glanced  at  this  grating,'  said  a  certain 
Dufour,  *  I  thought  I  was  at  the  menagerie 
watching  the  rage  of  the  wild  beasts  when 
some  one  comes  before  their  bars ! '  Even 
when  the  queen  had  retired  to  rest,  cries  of 
*  Fling  us  her  head ! '  reached  her. 

On  August  12  the  Legislative  Assembly, 
under  the  influence  of  the  Jacobins,  decided 
to  leave  the  Commune  of  Paris  to  settle 
on  the  place  where  the  king  was  to  live, 
and  to  arrange  the  details  of  his  existence. 
Marie  Antoinette  was  now  in  good  hands, 
forsooth,  which  were  going  to  take  special 
care  of  her. 

On  August  13,  1792,  the  queen,  with  her 
husband,  her  children,  Madame  Elizabeth, 
and  the  Princess  de  Lamballe,  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  smaller  tower  of  the  Temple. 
But  on  the  19th  two  commissioners 
from  the  municipality  were  ordered  to 
proceed  to  the  removal  of  all  persons  not 
belonging  to  the  *  Capet   family.'     Manuel 


THE  DEATH  OF  THE  QUEEN     191 

waxed  facetious  on  the  embarrassing  state 
inseparable  from  royalty.  '  I  will  give  you,' 
he  said,  '  some  women  of  my  acquaintance 
to  serve  you.'  The  queen  replied  that  she 
needed  no  one,  as  she  and  her  sister-in-law 
would  assist  each  other. 

'Very  well,  madam,'  said  the  man;  'you 
have  only  to  serve  yourself :  that  will  save 
you  the  trouble  of  choosing.' 

Attendants  were  placed  over  Marie 
Antoinette  to  spy  upon  her  from  night 
till  morning  and  from  morning  till  night. 
*  Not  a  movement,  not  a  word,  not  a  glance,' 
say  the  Goncourts,  *but  had  its  witnesses 
and  informers!  Not  a  moment  had  she 
alone  or  with  her  family.  There  were 
always  these  men  playing  the  spy  upon  her 
eyes,  her  lips,  her  silence !  Always  these 
men,  pursuing  her  even  into  her  bed- 
chamber when  she  slipped  away  to  change 
her  dress  !  Even  at  night,  in  the  anteroom 
where  Madame    de    Lamballe    had    lately 


192     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

slept,  the  municipal  guards  kept  watch, 
and  the  queen  was  spied  on  in  her  very 
slumbers.' 

Marseillais  had  been  placed  at  all  the 
landings.  When  the  queen  ascended  from 
the  garden,  they  sang  gaily — 

'  Madame  a  sa  tour  monte, 
Ne  salt  quand  descendra.' 

This  walk  in  the  garden,  which  she  imposed 
on  herself  for  the  sake  of  her  children's 
health,  was  a  martyrdom.  At  the  foot  of 
the  tower  the  two  gaolers,  Risbey  and 
Rocher,  blew  the  smoke  of  their  pipes  in 
her  face,  while  the  municipal  guards,  riding 
cock-horse  on  chairs  set  in  a  circle,  laughed 
at  the  grimaces  she  made  at  the  smell  of 
the  smoke.  They  watched  the  curling 
wreaths  as  they  played  about  her  abundant 
fair  locks.  In  the  garden  the  soldiers  had 
orders  to  wear  their  hats  ostentatiously 
before  her.     The  gunners  started  to  dance 


THE  DEATH  OF  THE  QUEEN     193 

in  a  ring,  singing  the  *  (^a  ira ! '  and  the 
labourers  working  at  the  walls  of  the 
enclosure  said  openly  that  they  would  prefer 
to  use  their  tools  in  breaking  her  head. 

The  Commune  had  given  very  explicit 
instructions.  Persons  entering  the  queen's 
presence  were  to  keep  their  hats  on.  *  I 
saw  in  the  queen's  apartment,'  writes 
Lepitre,  *a  stonecutter  named  Mercereau, 
in  the  filthiest  apparel,  lying  at  full  length 
on  a  damask  sofa  where  the  queen  usually 
sat,  and  he  justified  himself  by  invoking 
the  principle  of  equality.  The  municipal 
guards  used  systematically  to  loll  in  arm- 
chairs before  the  fireplace,  resting  their  feet 
on  the  andirons  so  as  terrender  it  impossible 
for  the  princesses  to  warm  themselves.' 

Lampoons  of  the  most  disgusting  kind, 
slanders,  the  pamphlets  of  Boussenard, 
the  Mdnage  royale  en  d^route,  the  Tentation 
cTAntoine  et  son  cochon,  were  cried  at  the  foot 
of  the  walls.     '  Worst  of  all  these  outrages 

N 


194     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

on  the  queen  was  the  shameful  outrage 
which  no  people  nor  age  had  yet  ventured 
against  the  modesty  of  a  woman  :  there  was 
no  lavatory  for  the  princesses  except  that 
of  the  town  guards  and  the  soldiers.' 

And  yet,  while  she  was  with  her  children 
life  seemed  endurable.  She  used  to  be 
present  at  the  supper  of  her  son.  When  it 
happened  that  the  guards  had  gone  away 
for  a  moment  she  hastily,  and  in  a  whisper, 
made  the  boy  repeat  a  prayer.  Then  she  put 
him  to  bed,  and  sat  watching  him  until  nine 
o'clock.  Then  the  king's  supper  was  served, 
and  after  that  she  returned  to  the  bedside 
of  the  child  till  a  late  hour  of  the  night. 

The  queen  had  always  been  fond  of 
embroidery,  and  it  formed  a  distraction  for 
these  long  hours.  Some  one  no  doubt 
noticed  that  it  gave  her  too  much  pleasure, 
for  an  order  from  the  municipality  put  an 
end  to  the  needlework.  Her  embroidery, 
said  the  Commune,  concealed  a  correspond- 


THE  DEATH  OF  THE  QUEEN     195 

ence  in  hieroglyphics.  Deprived  of  her 
embroidery,  Marie  Antoinette  devoted 
herself  to  darning,  the  need  of  which  was 
very  manifest.  The  dauphin  slept  in 
tattered  sheets ;  and  she  mended  the 
king's  coat  while  he  was  in  bed. 

The  queen,  like  her  sister-in-law  and  her 
daughter,  was  dressed  in  the  morning  in 
white  pique,  and  their  heads  were  covered 
with  white  lawn.  At  noon  they  put  on 
their  only  finery  :  a  garment  of  tulle,  with 
little  flowers  on  a  brown  ground. 

On  September  22  the  Republic  was 
proclaimed.  A  few  days  afterwards  the 
prisoner  received  some  linen  that  had  been 
previously  ordered  for  her.  The  dress- 
makers had  worked  her  monogram  upon  it, 
surmounted  by  the  royal  crown ;  and  the 
republican  government  gave  themselves  the 
pleasure  of  compelling  the  queen  to  unpick 
with  her  own  hands  the  crowns  embroidered 
upon  her  linen. 


196     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

*  The  queen  having  been  sick  and  taken 
no  food,'  says  Turgy,  '  sent  to  ask  me  to 
have  a  broth  prepared  for  supper.  Just  as 
I  handed  it  to  her,  she  learned  that  the 
woman  Tison— placed  in  her  prison  as 
wardress — was  likewise  indisposed.  She 
ordered  the  broth  to  be  taken  to  her.  I 
then  asked  one  of  the  guard  to  take  me 
to  the  kitchen  to  procure  another  portion. 
Not  one  of  them  would  accompany  me.' 
The  queen,  ill  as  she  was,  went  supperless 
to  bed. 

This  woman  Tison  was  a  decoy,  who 
insinuated  herself  into  the  queen's  confid- 
ence only  to  betray  her.  Her  accusations 
brought  ruin  upon  those  whose  sympathies 
were  moved  by  the  prisoners'  unhappy 
plight.  But  nature  had  its  revenge.  One 
day  the  woman  fell  at  the  queen's  feet, 
imploring  her  pardon.  She  was  frantic 
with  remorse.  She  was  carried  away 
screaming    to   a   madhouse.      And    Marie 


THE  PRINCESSE   DE  LAMBALLE. 


THE  DEATH  OF  THE  QUEEN     197 

Antoinette,  who  had  learned  of  her  tale- 
bearing and  its  terrible  consequences,  com- 
passionately inquired  after  her  welfare. 

The  family  were  at  dinner  on  September 
3,  when  they  were  interrupted  by  the  noise 
to  which  they  were  becoming  accustomed — 
the  clamour  of  the  mob.  People  cried  out 
for  the  queen  to  come  to  the  window.  The 
unhappy  woman  was  going  there  when  one 
of  the  guard  named  Menessier  suddenly 
threw  himself  in  front  of  her,  pushed  her 
back,  and  drew  the  curtains.  But  Louis 
XVI.,  since  his  people  asked  for  him,  was 
ready  to  appear  before  them.  The  curtains 
were  thrown  back.  The  queen  uttered  no 
cry,  she  did  not  faint ;  but  her  eyes  were 
fixed  in  a  dreadful  stare — the  wild  stare  of 
a  madwoman.  At  the  end  of  a  pike  they 
were  presenting  to  her  the  ghastly  head 
of  the  Princess  de  Lamballe.  The  people 
wanted  her  to  embrace  her  friend  for  the 
last  time.       *Two   individuals,'   writes  the 


198     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

painter  Daujon,  who  chanced  to  be  then  at 
the  foot  of  the  tower,  'were  dragging  by 
the  legs  a  headless  body,  nude,  its  back  to 
the  ground,  its  stomach  opened  as  high  as 
the  breast.  At  the  foot  of  the  tower  the 
corpse  was  ostentatiously  displayed,  and 
the  limbs  were  arranged  with  a  sort  of  art, 
and  a  callousness  that  opens  a  wide  field 
for  the  meditation  of  the  philosopher.' 

The  gentle,  beautiful  Princess  de  Lam- 
balle,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  had  in  her 
tender,  thoughtless  pity  visited  Madame 
de  La  Motte  at  the  Salpetriere,  had  been 
massacred  with  hammers  at  the  moment 
when  her  gaolers  liberated  her  from  the 
prison  of  La  Force.  Her  beautiful  body 
suffered  infamous  mutilations.  The  head 
was  severed  from  the  trunk  and  borne  by 
the  rabble  to  a  wine-merchant's.  It  was 
placed  there  upon  his  counter,  with  little 
glasses  ranged  all  round.  The  fair  ringlets, 
matted  with  blood,  fell  into  the  poor  glazed 


THE  DEATH  OF  THE  QUEEN     199 

staring  eyes  ;  the  features  were  drawn  ;  the 
flesh  was  wan  and  flaccid,  the  skin  marked 
with  green  spots  of  decomposing  blood, — 
and  the  light  sparkled  in  the  little  glasses, 
forming  a  gay  aureole  with  the  scintillation 
of  the  golden  liquor. 

One  man  had  taken  the  head,  another 
from  the  shattered  breast  had  ripped  the 
heart.  This  he  ate  while  it  was  still  raw 
and  throbbing.  It  was,  he  said,  a  dainty, ifu 
and  delicious  morsel.  This  relish  for  a 
fresh  and  palpitating  heart  was  so  much  to 
the  taste  of  the  day  that  in  the  evening 
several  gallant  fellows,  in  diflerent  parts  of 
the  capital,  each  boasted  of  having  been  the 
hero  of  the  adventure,  and  one  of  them, 
to  illustrate  his  story,  called  admiring  at- 
tention to  his  moustaches  still  red  with 
blood. 

Louis  was  transferred  on  September  30 
from  the  small  tower  to  the  large  tower 
of  the   Temple,  and  was  there  joined   on 


200     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

October  26  by  his  wife  and  sister,  Madame 
Elizabeth. 

On  the  night  of  January  20,  1793,  Madame 
heard  her  mother,  who  had  not  undressed, 
shaking  in  her  bed  all  night  long  from  cold 
and  grief.     Louis  had  just  been  condemned 
to  death.      Throughout    the  whole   course 
of  the   trial   the   Convention    had    refused 
to   the    king   the   consolation   and   support 
of  seeing    his   wife   and   children ;    but   it 
shrank    from    forbidding    a    last    embrace 
before  the  execution.      The  closing  inter- 
view was  to  take  place  in  the  dining-room. 
The   queen   entered    holding    her   son    by 
the  hand.     She  wished  to  draw  the  king 
towards   her   own   room.      'No,'   said   the 
king,    '  I    may  only    see   you   here.'      The 
municipal  guards  stood  pressing  their  faces 
against   the   glass   door,    filling   their   eyes 
with   the   sight   of    '  perhaps    the    greatest 
sorrow,'   say   the    Goncourts,    '  with   which 
God  has  ever  afflicted   the  gaze  of  men.' 


THE  DEATH  OF  THE  QUEEN     201 

All  bent  forward  :  the  king  was  blessing 
his  wife  and  sister  and  children.  The 
dauphin  was  lifting  up  his  tiny  hand,  and 
swearing,  at  his  father's  bidding,  to  pardon 
those  who  were  putting  that  father  to 
death.'  Then  silence.  Nothing  was  pos- 
sible now  but  sobs. 

Before  he  died  the  king  laid  aside  his 
wedding  ring,  a  seal,  and  a  packet  of  hair 
for  his  wife.  The  Convention  feared  that 
objects  of  this  nature  in  the  hands  of  an 
imprisoned  woman  might  compromise  the 
destiny  of  the  Revolution,  and  the  memorials 
of  the  dead  husband  were  not  handed  to 
his  wife.  But  Toulan,  one  of  the  guards, 
touched  by  her  anguish,  purloined  the 
articles,  and  Marie  Antoinette  was  able  to 
press  them  to  her  heart.  Toulan  was 
guillotined. 

On  the  day  of  the  king's  execution  the 
queen  asked  for  mourning  of  the  simplest 
kind,  the  costume  of  the  people — 'a  mantle 


202     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

of  black  taffety,  a  black  neckerchief  and 
skirt,  a  pair  of  black  gloves,  and  two  caps 
of  black  taffety.'  She  asked  at  the  same 
time  for  a  pair  of  sheets  and  a  quilted 
coverlet.  But  the  Convention  thought 
that  sheets  and  a  quilt  were  too  luxurious 
for  a  lady  in  the  month  of  January.  They 
granted  the  mourning,  but  refused  the 
coverlet. 

*The  widow  wore  mourning  which  she 
owed  to  the  generosity  of  the  republic. 
She  had  on  her  head  a  washerwoman's  cap, 
with  weepers  falling  upon  her  shoulders. 
A  black  veil  was  between  the  weepers  and 
her  hair.  A  large  white  fichu  was  crossed 
over  her  neck  and  fastened  with  a  blunt 
pin.  A  little  black  shawl  edged  with  white 
was  knotted  at  the  bodice  of  her  black 
dress.  On  her  brow  and  down  her  temples 
strayed  wisps  of  hair  that  escaped  from 
her  cap,  and  the  hair  was  blanching  fast. 
Her  mien  was  proud  still,  and  her  eyebrows 


MARIE   ANTOINETTE   IN    MOURNING  GARB. 


THE  DEATH  OF  THE  QUEEN     203 

had  not  lowered  their  imperial  arch.  Tears 
had  reddened  her  eyelids,  tears  had  swollen 
her  eyes.  Her  look  had  lost  its  radiance 
for  a  hard,  fixed  stcire.  The  blue  of  her 
eyes  no  longer  had  its  flashing  brilliance, 
its  caressing  softness  ;  it  was  glassy,  cold, 
almost  fierce.  The  beautiful,  aquiline  con- 
tour of  her  nose  was  become  a  bony  ridge, 
and  agony  seemed  to  have  pinched  the 
nostrils  once  quivering  with  youth.' 

This  woman,  who  but  lately  had  seen  the 
world  At  her  feet  in  one  emulation  of  flattery 
and  deference,  who  had  known  every  form 
of  splendour,  now  in  her  cold  and  narrow 
prison  possessed  but  one  comfort  and  stay 
— we  cannot  say  a  joy — her  children.  The 
revolutionary  government  thought  that  this 
was  too  much.  The  queen,  Madame,  and 
Madame  Elizabeth  were  awakened  by  the 
sound  of  opening  gratings :  it  was  the 
guards  coming  to  inform  Marie  Antoinette 
of  the   new   decree   of  the   Committee   of 


204     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

Public  Safety,  sanctioned  by  the  Conven- 
tion :  '  The  Committee  decrees  that  the 
son  Capet  shall  be  separated  from  his 
mother.'  At  first  the  queen  did  not  under- 
stand. Then  suddenly  she  flung  herself 
upon  her  son  with  the  cry  of  a  wild  creature. 
*  Kill  me  first! '  she  cried.  The  men  replied 
that  if  she  did  not  loose  the  child  it  was  not 
she  they  would  kill,  but  the  little  one  :  and 
the  boy  was  in  their  hands. 

At  last  she  was  utterly  broken :  was  she 
still  alive?  Robespierre  thought  that  she 
was  as  yet  only  too  much  alive.  *  The 
punishment  of  a  tyrant,'  he  cried,  on  April 
lo,  1793,  in  the  Convention,  *  obtained  after 
so  much  hateful  discussion '  (the  great  citizen 
thought  that  the  forms  of  trial  had  been 
too  closely  observed)— '  shall  this  be  the 
only  homage  we  have  rendered  to  liberty 
and  equality  ? '  The  death  of  Marie  An- 
toinette was  destined  to  be  a  not  less 
appreciable  homage  to  them.     *  This  death,' 


THE  DEATH  OF  THE  QUEEN     205 

said  Robespierre  in  conclusion,  '  shall  revive 
in  all  hearts  a  holy  antipathy  for  royalty, 
and  give  a  new  force  to  public  spirit.' 

On  August  I  the  Committee  of  Public 
Safety  submitted  to  the  Convention  the 
following  decree  :  *  Marie  Antoinette  is  re- 
mitted to  the  extraordinary  tribunal :  she 
will  be  transferred  immediately  to  the  Con- 
ciergerie/ 

At  one  o'clock  next  morning  the  queen 
was  awakened.      As  she  left  the  tower  in 
all  haste  without  stooping,  she  struck  her 
head  against  the  grating. 
*  Have  you  hurt  yourself? ' 
'  Oh  no !  nothing  can  hurt  me  now  ! ' 
Twenty  gendarmes  escorted  the  prisoner 
through  the  heavy,  stifling  night  air.     She 
arrived  at  the  Conciergerie  at  two  o'clock 
in  the  morning.     The  Pere  Duchesne  was 
beside   itself  with  joy.      *  I    bent  my  ear 
to    the   grating,'    it    wrote,    *to    hear    her 
groans.      ''And  so  I  shall  never  see,"  she 


206     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

said,  ''the  ruin  of  Paris  which  I  had  been 
so  long  preparing ;  I  shall  never  swim  in 
her  blood."' 

At  the  Conciergerie  the  queen  was  in 
want  of  everything.  She  had  no  change  of 
linen,  and  the  wardress,  Madame  Richard, 
dared  not  supply  her  with  any,  in  spite  of 
the  pity  which  had  touched  her  heart.  The 
gendarmes  were  now  installed  in  her  room 
from  morning  till  night,  and  there  they  in- 
dulged freely  in  their  coarse  soldier's  talk 
and  smoked  their  huge  pipes.  At  night 
the  queen's  eyes  were  red  and  swollen 
with  the  smoke,  her  head  was  heavy  with 
pain.  Sometimes  one  of  the  gendarmes 
would  notice  it  and  drop  his  pipe. 

At  the  Temple  she  had  been  deprived 
of  her  embroidery :  here  even  her  needles 
and  thread  were  taken  from  her.  How 
was  she  to  pass  the  long,  doleful  hours  ? 
Struck  with  a  presentiment  of  her  approach- 
ing  end,    she   thought   of   employing    her 


THE  DEATH  OF  THE  QUEEN     207 

fingers  to  leave  a  little  memento  to  her 
children.  And  she  began  to  pick  coarse 
threads  from  a  piece  of  tapestry  over  which 
wall-paper,  now  rotted  by  the  damp,  had 
been  hung.  These  threads  she  plaited  with 
her  patient  hands,  and  succeeded  in  making 
a  sort  of  lace.  She  had  no  light.  *  I  used 
to  prolong  my  duties  as  much  as  I  could  in 
the  evening,'  said  Rosalie  Lamorliere,  her 
maidservant,  'so  that  my  mistress  might 
remain  a  little  longer  in  solitude  and  ob- 
scurity.' The  dampness  of  the  room  was 
frightful.  Bault,  the  warder,  had  a  piece  of 
old  tapestry  nailed  to  the  wall  in  order  that 
the  queen's  bed  might  thus  be  protected  to 
some  extent  from  the  oozings.  The  members 
of  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety  were  in- 
dignant at  this  mark  of  sympathy,  and  Bault 
had  to  invent  a  falsehood,  and  say  that  his 
object  was  to  prevent  the  queen  from  hear- 
ing scraps  of  conversation  from  the  other 
room.      On  August   19   Michonis,   admini- 


2o8      CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

strator  of  police,  asked  the  municipal  officers 
composing  the  guard  at  the  Temple  to  send 
in  four  chemises  and  a  pair  of  shoes  of  which 
the  queen  had  urgent  need.  *  These  four 
miserable  garments,'  write  the  Goncourts, 
*  soon  reduced  to  three,  were  only  delivered 
to  the  queen  at  intervals  of  ten  days.  She 
had  only  two  dresses,  which  she  put  on  alter- 
nately. H  er  poor  black  dress,  her  poor  white 
dress,  both  rotted  by  the  moisture  of  her  room 

We  must  pause  here  :  words  fail  us.' 

The  queen  had  become  extremely  thin. 
She  was  altered  beyond  recognition.  The 
common  folk  who  saw  her  were  struck  with 
respect  and  pity.  The  warders  placed  in 
charge  of  her,  the  servants  called  to  wait 
upon  her,  were  touched  to  the  bottom  of 
their  hearts  by  the  sight  of  grief  so  nobly 
borne.  Market-women  brought  her  fruits  : 
one  a  melon  '  for  her  dear  queen,'  another 
a  basket  of  peaches — heroines  all,  know- 
ing that  for  melon  and  peaches  they  were 


THE  DEATH  OF  THE  QUEEN     209 

risking  death.  With  the  complicity  of  the 
warders  the  fruits  arrived  at  their  destina- 
tion. Attempts  were  made  to  effect  the 
queen's  escape,  at  first  from  the  Temple, 
afterwards  from  the  Conciergerie.  The 
first,  directed  by  Toulan,  almost  succeeded ; 
but  at  the  last  moment  it  became  evident 
that  the  children  would  not  be  able  to 
follow  their  mother.  'We  have  cherished 
a  fine  dream,'  wrote  the  queen  to  Jarjayes, 
'that  is  all.  The  interests  of  my  son  are 
all  that  I  look  to ;  and,  whatever  happiness 
I  myself  might  have  experienced  in  being 
out  of  this,  I  cannot  consent  to  be  separated 
from  him.  Be  sure  that  I  am  conscious  of 
the  goodness  of  your  reasons  so  far  as  my 
own  interests  are  concerned,  and  know  that 
this  opportunity  will  never  offer  itself  again, 
but  I  should  never  have  a  moment's  joy  if 
I  left  my  children,  and  the  thought  leaves 
not  a  shadow  of  regret.'  At  the  Concier- 
gerie the   plan  of  escape  seemed  easy  of 

o 


210     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

execution,  but  the  two  gendarmes  who 
formed  the  guard  would  have  had  to  be 
killed.  The  queen  was  enduring  a  mar- 
tyrdom, but  the  death  of  two  men  seemed 
to  her  too  high  a  price  to  pay  for  liberty. 

By  this  time  the  queen's  fate  had  been 
decided.  In  vain  was  Madame  de  Stael,  in 
London,  publishing  her  eloquent  appeals  to 
justice  and  pity.  '  To  excite  the  multitude,' 
she  wrote,  '  it  was  incessantly  repeated  that 
the  queen  was  an  enemy  of  the  French, 
and  to  this  accusation  the  most  ferocious 
forms  were  given.  Say,  you  that  accuse 
her,  what  blood,  what  tears  she  has  ever 
caused  to  flow?  In  those  ancient  prisons 
that  you  have  opened,  have  you  found  one 
single  victim  who  charged  Marie  Antoinette 
with  his  fate  ?  No  queen,  during  the  time 
of  her  greatest  power,  has  ever  known  such 
open  calumny,  and  the  more  certain  men 
were  that  she  would  not  punish,  the  more 
they  multiplied    their  insults.      We   know 


THE  DEATH  OF  THE  QUEEN     211 

that  she  has  been  the  butt  of  innumerable 
shafts  of  ingratitude,  of  thousands  of  lam- 
poons, of  revolting  lawsuits,  and  we  look 
in  vain  for  the  least  sign  of  a  vengeful 
action.  It  is  true,  then,  that  she  has  done 
no  ill  to  a  single  soul,  she  who  is  suffering 
torments  unheard-of.' 

Of  what  avail  were  words  so  true  and 
simple.'*  The  Pere  Duchesne  had  greater 
authority  than  Madame  de  Stael. 

It  was  Carrier,  the  hero  of  Nantes,  who 
at  the  height  of  the  struggles  between  the 
Montagne  and  the  Gironde  had  created  the 
tribunal  to  which  Marie  Antoinette  had 
been  remitted.  The  work  was  worthy  of 
its  author.  The  juries,  nominated  by  the 
Convention,  were  salaried  officials  who  were 
bound  to  express  their  opinion  severally 
in  open  court.  They  knew  that  if  their 
verdict  were  not  approved  they  would  be 
guillotined.  That  was  what  the  men  of 
the  Revolution  called  the  independence  of 


212      CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

the  magistrature.  'It  was  only  with  the 
proviso  that  the  jurors  should  give  their 
verdict  openly  that  the  Friends  of  Liberty 
agreed  to  the  presence  of  jurors  in  this 
tribunal,'  writes  Lamarque.  Danton  clearly 
indicated  the  purpose  of  the  tribunal  in  a 
speech  to  the  Assembly :  *  This  tribunal 
is  to  serve  as  a  supreme  court  for  the 
vengeance  of  the  people.'  When  through 
a  long  course  of  months  heads  fell  by 
thousands,  Danton  regarded  the  tribunal 
as  serving  its  intention  perfectly.  But  one 
day  the  same  court  decided  that  Danton 
himself  should  be  guillotined,  and  he  forth- 
with declared :  *  It  was  I  that  established 
this  tribunal ;  but  not  that  it  should  be  the 
scourge  of  humanity.'  Anecdotes  of  this 
sort  are  numerous,  and  would  give  to  the 
Revolution  a  charming  air  of  drollery  if 
among  them  one  did  not  wade  in  pools  of 
blood. 

The  law  relating  to  suspects  was  voted 


THE  DEATH  OF  THE  QUEEN     213 

on  September  16,  1793.  The  number  of 
judges  was  then  increased  to  sixteen,  that 
of  the  jurymen  to  sixty.  The  list  of  can- 
didates presented  by  Vouland  was  adopted 
by     the    Convention     without     discussion. 

*  Almost  all,'  said  Gauthier  to  the  Jacobins, 

*  have  been  chosen  among  the  Jacobins,  and 
of  them  we  are  sure.'  An  admirable  court 
for  the  trial  of  the  queen !  The  former 
president,  Montane,  had  been  thrown  into 
prison  because  he  had  sought,  it  was  said,  to 
get  Charlotte  Corday  acknowledged  as  mad. 

The  hero  of  the  tribunal  was  the  public 
prosecutor  Fouquier-Tinville.  When  the 
royal  power  was  at  its  height,  he  was  dis- 
tinguished by  an  ardent  zeal  for  the  glory 
of  the  king,  composing  in  his  honour  a 
number  of  ballads  and  occasional  verses. 
He  had  a  pretty  wit.  Madame  de  Saint- 
Servan  happened  to  be  paralysed  in  con- 
sequence  of  a   fall,  and   could    not  speak. 

*  It  is  not  her  tongue  that  we  want,'  cried 


214     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

the  prosecutor  by  a  happy  inspiration  ;  '  it 
is  her  head  that  we  want.'  She  was 
guillotined.  *  Robespierre,'  says  Mercier, 
'wanted  to  meet  a  man  at  once  fiendish 
and  docile,  one  of  those  men  who  are 
proud  to  become  the  lackeys  of  tyranny, 
and  to  whom  crimes  cost  nothing ;  he  met 
Fouquier-Tinville. ' 

He  was  worthily  seconded  by  the  dele- 
gates of  the  Commune,  Pache,  mayor  of 
Paris;  Chaumette,  a  procurator;  Hebert, 
the  procurator's  deputy :  names  to  which,  sad 
to  relate,  the  name  of  the  illustrious  Louis 
David  has  to  be  added.  The  crime  com- 
mitted by  these  men  and  their  agents  is 
too  horrible  for  words.  To  corrupt  a  child 
to  the  destruction  of  his  health,  and  then 
to  use  his  corruption  as  a  means  of  abomin- 
able outrage  upon  his  mother ;  not  satisfied 
with  causing  her  to  be  insulted  by  her  son, 
a  child  of  eight,  brutalised  by  beatings  and 
brandy,  but  to  repeat  the  atrocious  calumny 


THE  DEATH  OF  THE  QUEEN     215 

in  open  court  and  make  use  of  it,  after  her 
head  had  fallen,  in  the  attempt  to  blacken 
the  victim's  reputation  :  such  things,  that 
seem  humanly  impossible,  were  actually 
committed.  The  official  reports  of  the 
horrible  cross-examination  at  the  Temple 
are  preserved  in  the  National  Archives. 
*The  young  prince,'  writes  Daujon,  who 
acted  as  clerk,  '  was  seated  in  a  large  chair, 
swinging  his  little  legs,  which  did  not  touch 
the  floor.'  Did  he  understand  the  words 
put  into  his  mouth?  'Chaumette,'  said 
the  dauphin's  sister,  a  girl  of  fifteen, 
'  questioned  me  on  dreadful  things  of  which 
my  mother  and  aunt  were  accused.  I  was 
overcome  by  such  horror,  and  so  indignant, 
that,  in  spite  of  all  the  fear  I  felt,  I  could 
not  help  saying  it  was  infamous.  In  spite 
of  my  tears,  they  persisted  in  their  questions. 
There  were  things  I  did  not  understand, 
but  what  I  did  understand  was  so  horrible 
that  I  wept  with  indignation.' 


2i6     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

The  trial  was  fixed  for  the  15th  of 
October.  Two  official  counsel  for  the 
defence  had  been  appointed  by  Hermann, 
the  president,  but  only  on  the  evening 
before  ;  and  one  of  them,  Chauveau- 
Lagarde,  was  in  the  country.  There  was 
an  enormous  mass  of  material  to  digest, 
and  by  the  advice  of  her  counsel  the  queen 
requested  a  delay  of  three  days  for  that 
purpose.  Her  letter  was  flung  into  the 
waste-paper  basket.     The  trial  commenced 

'  in  fact  on  October  15,  at  eight  o'clock  in 
the  morning,  and  continued  without  inter- 
ruption until  four  o'clock  next  morning. 
Except  for  one  brief  interval  it  lasted  thus 

'  for  nearly  twenty  hours.  And  the  queen 
had  arrived  exhausted,  physically  by  months 
of  privation,  mentally  by  her  woes :  who 
would  not  have  been  overwhelmed  by  such 
tortures  ?  To-day  we  see  writers,  com- 
fortably settled  in  their  armchairs,  their 
feet  on  the  fender,  well-salaried  professors. 


THE  DEATH  OF  THE  QUEEN     217 

in  all  the  dignity  of  office,  holding  forth 
on  the  attitude  of  Marie  Antoinette  before 
her  judges  ;  to  their  way  of  thinking,  she 
showed  too  little  pride,  too  unsovereign- 
like  a  demeanour.  '  One  had  to  be  present 
and  watch  every  detail  of  this  famous  trial,' 
said  Chauveau-Lagarde,  '  to  have  a  just 
idea  of  the  splendid  character  the  queen 
there  displayed.' 

She  came  in  her  mourning  dress.  She 
had  done  her  best  with  the  few  rags  left 
to  her,  and  had  piled  up  her  hair — her  poor 
blanched  hair  —  with  studied  care  :  not 
through  pride,  but  disdaining  to  move  the 
populace  by  the  sight  of  her  misery. 

Hermann  and  Fouquier-Tinville  accused 
Marie  Antoinette  of  desiring  to  remount 
to  the  throne  upon  the  corpses  of  the 
patriots.  She  replied  :  '  I  have  never 
desired  aught  but  the  welfare  of  France  ; 
nothing  but  that  she  be  happy ;  and  if  she 
is  so,  I  shall  be  content.'    An  ordeal  lasting 


2i8     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

twenty  hours  !  Sick,  without  food  or  rest, 
the  queen  had  to  put  a  constraint  upon 
herself,  master  herself,  never  for  an  instant 
lose  her  self-control — to  steel  her  failing 
nerves,  to  command  her  countenance  and 
vanquish  nature.  As  the  spectators  were 
continually  asking  her  to  rise  from  her 
seat  so  that  they  might  see  her  better : 
*Will  the  people  soon  be  tired  of  my 
fatigue  ?  '  she  murmured,  in  exhaustion. 

The  witnesses  were  heard.  Hebert 
brought  forward  the  filthy  stories  he  had 
concocted  in  collaboration  with  Pache, 
Chaumette,  and  David.  Short,  slight,  and 
well-trimmed,  with  fair  hair  and  a  mild 
countenance,  he  was  editor  of  the  Pere 
Duchesne,  and  at  this  moment  the  most 
influential  member  of  the  Commune.  He 
had  married  a  nun  of  the  Assomption- 
Saint-Honore,  a  charming  woman.  Her 
drawing-room  was  a  brilliant  centre  of  wit. 
While    insulting    the    aristocrats,     Hebert 


THE  DEATH  OF  THE  QUEEN     219 

envied  their  refinement  and  distinction, 
and  tried  to  copy  them. 

The  queen  let  this  flood  of  filth  pass  in 
silence.  Hebert  reeled  off  his  tale  in  his 
suavest  tones,  with  delicate  inflections  and 
carefully  chosen  language.  The  queen 
stood  erect,  her  eyes  fixed,  her  head  stiff, 
not  a  muscle  of  her  face  contracting. 

It  was  a  memorable  moment.  Born  in 
calumny,  nourished  on  calumny,  glorified 
even  to  this  day  by  calumny,  the  Re- 
volution could  not  but  give  to  calumny 
dimensions  which  had  never  thitherto 
been  attained,  which  have  never  been 
attained  since,  and  which  seemed  unimagin- 
able. 

'  I  was  going,'  says  Moelle,  a  member  of 
the  Commune,  '  to  try  to  prove  the  falseness 
of  Hebert's  accusation,  by  mentioning  a 
circumstance  of  the  rules  of  the  Temple 
and  the  means  of  surveillance  practised 
there,  when  Fouquier-Tinville,  who  divined 


220     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

my  intention,  sharply  interrupted  me  with 
the  request  to  say  plain  "yes  "  or  **no." ' 

Fouquier  delivered  his  address  for  the 
prosecution.  *  Not  content,  in  concert  with 
the  brothers  of  Louis  Capet  and  the  in- 
famous and  execrable  Calonne,  then  finance 
minister,  with  having  squandered  in  a 
frightful  manner  the  finances  of  France, 
the  fruit  of  the  people's  sweat,  in  order  to 
satisfy  her  ill-regulated  pleasures  and  pay 
the  agents  of  her  criminal  intrigues  '  .  .  . 
*at  the  same  time  that  she  was  encourag- 
ing the  Swiss  to  make  their  cartridges,  in 
order  to  excite  them  still  further  she  took 
some  cartridges  and  bit  them  '  .  .  .  *  finally, 
immoral  in  every  conceivable  way,  a  second 
Agrippina,  she  is  so  wicked  and  so  familiar 
with  every  crime  that,  forgetting  her  voca- 
tion as  mother  and  the  limits  prescribed  by 
the  laws  of  nature,  the  widow  Capet  has 
not  shrunk  from  indulging  with  Louis  Capet, 
her  son,  by  the  confession  of  the  latter  him- 


THE  DEATH  OF  THE  QUEEN     221 

self,  in  abominations  the  mere  idea  and 
name  of  which  make  us  shudder  with 
horror.'     Such  were  some  of  his  sentences. 

The  queen  still  ignoring  the  foul  charges, 
one  of  the  jury,  exasperated  by  such  dignity, 
directly  questioned  her  :  *  If  I  have  not 
replied,'  she  said,  *  it  is  because  nature 
refuses  to  answer  such  an  accusation  made 
against  a  mother ;  I  appeal  to  all  the 
mothers  here  present ! ' 

Her  voice  rang  out,  and  for  the  first  time 
in  the  sight  of  the  audience  tears  flowed 
down  her  cheeks.  *  Before  this  sublime 
cry,'  say  the  brothers  Humbert,  who  were 
among  the  audience,  '  a  magnetic  current 
ran  through  the  hall.  The  tricoteuses 
(knitters)  were  touched  in  spite  of  them- 
selves, and  were  all  but  applauding.' 
Piercing  cries  were  heard  ;  women  fainted 
and  had  to  be  carried  out.  The  harsh, 
nasal  voice  of  Hermann  threatened  to  have 
the  hall  cleared. 


222      CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

At  midnight  the  president  said  to  the 
advocates  :  *  In  a  quarter  of  an  hour  the 
prt)ceedings  will  terminate :  prepare  your 
defence.'  What  could  the  defence  be  in 
these  conditions?  The  two  advocates  sur- 
passed themselves.  They  spoke  with 
emotion  and  courage.  Scarcely  had  they 
finished  when  by  order  of  the  members 
of  the  Committee  of  Public  Safety  present 
\^  they  were  both  arrested.  De  Shze,  one  of 
the  king's  defenders,  had  been  at  La  Force 
since  October  20 ;  the  other,  Malesherbes, 
was  guillotined.  Fouquier  demanded  the 
head  of  Chauveau-Lagarde.  The  pleadings 
were  not  allowed  to  be  published,  and  a 
garbled  account  of  them  appeared  in  Le 
Moniteur. 

As  she  left  the  court  the  queen  gave  to 
Tron9on-Ducoudray,  the  second  of  her 
advocates,  a  lock  of  hair  and  some  earrings, 
begging  him  to  give  them  to  M.  de  Jarjayes 
as  a  memento.     The  Committee  confiscated 


THE  DEATH  OF  THE  QUEEN     223 

these  articles  and  put  M.  de  Jarjayes  under 
arrest. 

Marie  Antoinette  was  unanimously  con- 
demned to  death.  The  jurors  gave  their 
verdict  publicly,  and  each  knew  that  if  he 
was  so  misguided  as  to  declare  for  her 
innocence  he  would  himself  be  guillotined. 

The  queen  heard  the  sentence  unmoved. 
She  came  down  from  her  bench  with  daunt- 
less brow,  and  lifted  the  rail  herself.  She 
returned  to  the  Conciergerie  at  half-past 
four  in  the  morning.  For  the  first  time 
in  sixty  days  she  obtained  a  torch,  and 
some  ink  and  paper.  What  must  her 
feelings  have  been !  '  During  this  halt  at 
the  foot  of  the  scaffold,'  as  she  said, 
she  wrote  to  her  sister-in-law,  Madame 
Elizabeth,  the  beautiful  letter,  so  calm  and 
elevated  in  style,  which  after  more  than 
a  century  draws  tears  of  admiration  and 
respect.  She  gave  it  to  Bault  the  warder. 
Poor  woman !    she  thought  that  these  few 


224     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

words  of  a  dying  sister  to  a  sister  her- 
self destined  to  death  would  reach  her. 
Fouquier-Tinville  seized  the  letter,  and  it 
was  discovered  in  the  false  bottom  of  a 
drawer  under  a  mattress  of  Robespierre's, 
along  with  costly  books  and  pictures  which 
this  amateur  of  enlightened  tastes  had  appro- 
priated from  those  he  had  done  to  death. 

The  sun  was  shining  at  eight  o'clock  when 
Marie  Antoinette  prepared  to  dress  for  her 
journey  to  the  scaffold.  She  went  into  the 
narrow  passage  between  her  bed  of  sacking 
and  the  wall,  herself  laid  out  her  chemise, 
bent  down,  and  loosened  her  dress,  to 
change  her  linen  for  the  last  time. 
Suddenly  she  paused.  The  gendarme  in 
attendance  had  approached  and,  with  his 
elbows  on  the  pillow  and  his  head  in  his 
hands,  was  watching  her  with  the  greatest 
interest.  *  Her  Majesty,'  says  Rosalie 
Lamorliere,  her  servant,  '  replaced  her  wrap 
upon  her  shoulders,  and  with  great  gentle- 


THE  DEATH  OF  THE  QUEEN     225 

ness  said  to  the  young  man  :  *'  In  the  name 
of  decency,  sir,  allow  me  to  change  my  linen 
without  witnesses."  **  I  cannot  consent  to 
it,'*  answered  the  gendarme  brusquely;  '*my 
orders  are  to  keep  my  eye  on  all  your  move- 
ments." ' 

What  a  scene !  A  gendarme  lying  flat 
on  the  bed,  following  with  curious  and 
prurient  gaze  the  dressing  of  a  queen  for 
her  execution ! 

*  The  distress  the  brutality  of  this  gen- 
darme caused  me,'  says  Rosalie  Lamorliere, 
'prevented  my  noticing  whether  the  queen 
still  had  the  medallion  of  M.  the  Dauphin, 
but  I  could  very  well  see  that  she  carefully 
rolled  up  her  poor  soiled  chemise.  She 
fastened  it  in  one  of  her  sleeves  as  in  a 
sheath,  and  then  pressed  it  into  a  space 
she  caught  sight  of  between  the  old  wall- 
hanging  and  the  wall.' 

In  vain  she  asked  that  her  hands  might 
not  be  bound  on  the  tumbril :    they  were 

p 


226     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

tied  together  with  such  force  that  the  cure 
Girard,  to  ease  her,  had  to  press  his  hand 
on  her  left  arm  during  the  ride.  The 
tumbril  advanced  slowly.  Marie  Antoinette 
wore  a  white  skirt  falling  over  a  black 
petticoat,  a  sort  of  white  night-vest,  a 
ribbon  tied  round  the  wrist,  a  cap  of 
white  linen,  like  that  of  the  women  of  the 
people,  with  a  black  ribbon.  She  had 
vainly  besought  that  she  might  go  to 
execution  bareheaded.  Her  white  hair 
was  cut  close  under  her  cap.  She  was 
pale,  but  had  two  hectic  spots  upon  her 
cheeks.  Her  eyes  were  bloodshot,  her 
eyelashes  stiff  and  motionless.  In  the 
Rue  Saint- Honore  the  cart  stopped  for 
a  moment,  and  a  child,  lifted  up  in  his 
mother's  arms,  blew  her  a  kiss,  and  then 
clapped  his  little  hands  gleefully.  The 
queen  responded  with  a  smile,  and  wept. 
These  were  the  only  tears  she  shed  during 
her  passage  to  the  scaffold. 


^ 


J..t.r.;-f       ^.       .^^./.         .,^/^,.,e//.         .y?^- 


^^- j^-;:,.. 


/.^,.. 


THE  QUEEN   GOING  TO  EXECUTION. 


THE  DEATH  OF  THE  QUEEN     227 

'She  mounted  it  with  bravado,'  said  the 
journals  next  day,  with  an  *  insolent '  air  of 
tranquillity.  She  set  her  dress  in  order  for 
the  execution  herself. 

Citizen  Lapierre,  a  good  patriot,  saw  the 
execution,  and  describes  it  in  bad  spelling 
and  picturesque  terms  :  *  Marie  Antoinette, 
the  hussy,  made  as  fine  an  end  as  the  hog 
of  Godille  our  pork-butcher.  She  showed 
wonderful  firmness  on  the  scaffold  and  all 
along  the  Rue  Saint-Honore  ;  in  fact,  she 
went  right  across  Paris  staring  at  the 
people  with  scorn  and  disdain ;  but  where- 
ever  she  passed  the  true  sansculottes  never 
ceased  to  cry  :  **  Long  live  the  Republic 
and  down  with  tyranny ! "  The  hussy  had 
the  strength  of  mind  to  go  to  the  scaffold 
without  blenching ;  but  when  she  saw  the 
medicine  actually  before  her  eyes  she  fell 
down,  done  for.  But  all  the  same,  they 
gave  her  valets-de-chambre  and  perruquiers 
to  make  her  toilette,  and  though  she  had 


228     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

no  beard  they  nevertheless  gave  her  a 
trimming,  and  though  women  don't  have 
them,  that  doesn't  prevent  us  from  shaving 
them  well' 

Hubert,  in  the  Pere  Duchesne,  celebrated 
in  lyric  style  the  event  of  which  he  was  so 
proud  to  have  been  the  principal  author : 
*  The  greatest  of  all  the  joys  of  the  Pere 
Duchesne  was  to  see  with  its  own  eyes  the 
head  of  the  Veto  female  separated  from  its 
goose  neck.' 

And  the  same  day,  in  execution  of  the 
decree  passed  by  the  Convention,  on  the 
motion  of  Barere,  the  mortal  remains  of 
the  eldest  son  of  Marie  Antoinette,  the 
first  dauphin,  were  removed  from  their 
tomb  at  Saint-Denis  and  shockingly  pro- 
faned. 

Nothing  had  been  neglected,  as  we  have 
seen.  The  t^te  of  October  was  complete  : 
*in  every  way  successful,'  as  our  chroniclers 
would  say. 


THE  DEATH  OF  THE  QUEEN     229 

Robespierre  proclaimed  that  the  death 
of  Marie  Antoinette  would  be  a  token  of 
homage  to  liberty  and  equality  ;  and  those 
two  great  principles  thus  received,  on 
October  16,  1793,  a  striking  tribute. 


230     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 


XV 

THE   CARDINAL   DE    ROHAN    IN    HIS    DIOCESE 

Exiled  to  his  abbey  of  the  Chaise- Dieu 
after  his  acquittal  by  the  Parlement,  Prince 
Louis  de  Rohan  had  there  won  the  affection 
of  the  monks  and  edified  the  people 
round.  The  work  of  an  incendiary  having 
threatened  the  town  with  a  general  con- 
flagration in  July  1786,  the  cardinal  was 
one  of  the  first  to  assist  in  extinguishing 
the  flames,  along  with  his  brother,  the 
Admiral  de  Guemen6e,  who  was  then  living 
with  him.  When  the  flames  had  been 
conquered,  the  monks  of  the  abbey  carried 
the  head  of  St.  Robert  in  procession  to 
the  scene  of  the  disaster,  and  the  cardinal 
did  not  hesitate  to  kneel  before  the  relic, 


THE  CARDINAL  DE  ROHAN      231 

in  the  mud  and  water.  The  worthy  in- 
habitants, says  a  contemporary  writer,  were 
moved  to  enthusiasm  and  admiration. 

In  September  1786,  Louis  de  Rohan  got 
permission  to  leave  the  Abbey  of  the 
Chaise- Dieu  for  that  of  Marmoutiers  near 
Tours.  On  August  8,  1787,  he  went  to 
live  in  the  Abbey  of  St.  Benoit-sur- Loire. 
He  had  kept  up  a  correspondence  with 
Maitre  Target,  who  had  so  devotedly  de- 
fended him,  and  on  December  1 5  he  wrote 
to  him  the  following  letter,  apropos  of 
a  bereavement  the  famous  advocate  had 
recently  suffered — a  letter  in  which  his 
kindliness  and  generosity  are  well  revealed  : 

*  It  seems  to  me,  sir,  that  sorrows  make 
still  more  sensitive  the  souls  that  injustice 
has  not  succeeded  in  hardening.  I  con- 
fess that  mine  has  retained  that  delicious 
source  of  happiness.  And  if  I  had  lost  this 
sensibility,  I  should  recover  it  all  when 
your  heart  expresses  its  anguish.     All  your 


232     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

causes  of  sorrow  are  intensified  by  the 
sight  of  the  difficulties  of  the  children  of 
the  lady  you  mourn.  I  can  assist  for  a 
time  in  the  education  of  the  boy,  whose 
sight  you  tell  me  is  very  weak,  who  is  pre- 
paring for  the  Church,  and  whom  you  pro- 
bably intend  to  continue  his  studies.  I  will 
send  him,  for  each  of  the  years  '88,  '89, 
and  '90,  three  hundred  livres  a  year,  and 
then  we  shall  see.  It  is  very  pleasant  to 
me  to  think  that  I  can  do  something  that 
will  be  agreeable  to  you.  I  only  wish  I 
could  do  more  for  the  child  who  is  so 
dear  to  you. 

'  You  know  my  feelings  of  friendship  and 
attachment  for  you.  I  will  end  now  there- 
fore with  the  words  vale  !  vale  I 

'  P,S.  You  ask  after  my  health.  It  is 
improving,  but  slowly.  May  yours  with- 
stand all  the  sorrows  of  your  heart.' 

On  December  24,  1788,  the  royal  order 
by  which  Rohan    had  been  exiled  was  re- 


THE  CARDINAL  DE  ROHAN       233 

yoked.  He  was  at  liberty  to  return  to 
Saverne,  and  stopped  at  Mlitzig  in  Alsace, 
a  place  adjacent  to  his  residence,  where 
the  people  had  organised  fetes  in  his 
honour.  At  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon, 
the  town-clerk,  at  the  head  of  a  detach- 
ment of  dragoons  in  uniform,  superbly 
equipped,  and  composed  of  the  dlite  of  the 
citizens,  led  his  troops,  sabre  in  hand,  along 
the  Dorlisheim  Road,  lining  both  sides 
of  the  way.  At  four  o'clock  the  cardinal 
appeared.  The  clerk  delivered  an  address  ; 
children  with  curled  hair  presented  Rohan 
with  nosegays.  The  crowd  had  assembled 
from  all  parts  of  the  district.  Near  the  great 
bridge,  the  Jews,  two  hundred  in  number, 
clothed  all  in  black,  were  ranged  in  line, 
their  rabbi  at  their  head.  The  rabbi  made 
a  speech,  to  which  the  cardinal  replied  that 
he  was  delighted  to  see  them  again  ;  where- 
upon the  Jews  indulged  in  demonstrations 
of  'the  most  lively  and  unfeigned  joy.'     At  . 


234     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

the  gates  of  the  town  all  the  clergy  were 
assembled,  with  crosses  and  banners — 
parish  priests  and  higher  ecclesiastics. 
The  town  was  hung  with  bunting.  Reach- 
ing the  chateau  *  amid  the  sound  of  cymbals 
and  trumpets,  and  the  combined  roar  of  can- 
non and  musketry,'  Rohan  was  harangued 
by  the  chief  magistrate  of  Schirmeck.  In 
the  evening  there  was  a  general  illumination. 
A  number  of  the  citizens  drank  too  freely  of 
Rhenish  wine.  The  cardinal  would  not  end 
this  magnificent  day  without  entering  the 
synagogue,  which  was  blazing  with  lights. 
He  stayed  there  for  half  an  hour,  while  they 
sang  with  appropriate  gestures  a  Hebrew 
canticle,  of  which  he  understood  nothing ; 
but  he  told  the  rabbi  he  thought  it 
charming,  and  thanked  the  Israelites  once 
more  for  their  kindness,  their  speeches,  and 
all  the  candles  they  had  lit  for  him.  To 
wind  up  the  fete,  the  more  important 
burghers  and  inhabitants  of  the  town,  and 


THE  CARDINAL  DE  ROHAN      235 

the  dragoon  corps  in  uniform,  supped 
copiously  in  the  town  hall.  In  the  square 
there  was  dancing  by  torchlight  all  night 
long.  The  Jews  assembled  in  the  house 
of  one  Daniel  Levy,  and  drank  wine  and 
beer  till  dawn.  'In  a  word,  everybody, 
rich,  poor,  young,  old,  gave  rein  to  their 
feelings  of  respect  and  affection  and  joy. 
Each  and  all  welcomed  the  happy  return, 
so  long  desired,  of  their  august  prince- 
bishop.' 

Sent  as  deputy  to  the  States-General  by 
the  clergy  of  Haguenau,  Rohan  fulfilled  a 
modest  part  there,  notwithstanding  the 
efforts  made  to  play  him  off  as  a  victim  of 
despotism.  The  revolutionary  movement 
was  growing  apace.  Reinstated  in  his  title 
of  Prince  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire,  Louis 
de  Rohan  retired  to  Ettenheim-Mlinster,  in 
the  part  of  his  estates  situated  on  the  right 
bank  of  the  Rhine.  Though  his  fortune 
was  considerably  reduced,  he  continued  to 


236     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

support,  to  the  utmost  of  his  power,  the 
priests  and  poor  nobles  who  had  been 
driven  from  their  homes. 

The  civil  constitution  of  the  clergy  was 
decreed  on  July  1 2,  1 790,  and  their  canonical 
institution  taken  from  the  Pope.  The 
religious  orders  had  been  suppressed  in 
February. 

Rohan  on  this  occasion  addressed  to  his 
clergy  and  the  faithful  in  his  diocese  a 
pastoral  charge  in  which  he  spoke  in  warm 
terms  against  the  *  novelties  which  the 
Apostle  condemns  and  which  are  carrying 
desolation  into  the  sanctuary.'  He  set 
himself  to  explain — but  on  this  point  his 
argument  is  historically  very  feeble — that  in 
the  early  days  of  the  Church  the  pastors  were 
not  elected  by  the  people.  For  the  Revolu- 
tion was  claiming  to  do  nothing  else  than 
restore  the  Church  to  its  primitive  purity. 
The  cardinal  was  more  successful  when  he 
showed  the  absurdity  of  leaving  the  election 


THE  CARDINAL  DE  ROHAN      237 

of  bishops  in  the  hands  of  those  who  did 
not  profess  the  CathoHc  faith.  Moreover, 
he  undertook  the  defence  of  the  GalHc 
church,  *that  ancient  edifice,  founded  on 
the  first  successors  of  the  Apostles,  watered 
by  the  blood  of  the  martyrs,  rendered 
illustrious  by  the  lights  of  the  greatest 
doctors,'  and  which,  he  said,  was  crumbling 
to  pieces  under  their  eyes.  And  further,  in 
a  bold  and  thoroughly  literary  metaphor — 
a  reflection  from  the  Academy  of  which  he 
was  a  member — he  added  :  '  The  purple  in 
which  we  are  clothed  warns  us  that  we 
ought  always  to  be  ready,  not  merely  to 
speak,  but  to  shed  our  blood  for  the  cause 
of  God  and  His  Church.' 

These  episcopal  proceedings  were  the 
cause  of  the  issue  of  a  decree  by  the 
National  High  Court,  on  July  13,  1791,  for. 
the  arrest  of  the  cardinal  as  *the  author  of 
letters,  episcopal  charges,  canonical  ex- 
hortations, pastoral  instructions,  containing 


238     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

formal  protests  against  the  constitutional 
laws  of  the  state,  and  tending  to  excite  the 
people  to  insurrection.'  He  was  further 
accused  of  having  *  charged  the  Sieur  Zipp, 
priest  of  Schierich,  to  distribute  the  libels 
and  writings '  incriminated. 

Meanwhile  Euloge  Schneider,  a  Fran- 
ciscan, a  native  of  Wlirtzburg,  professor  of 
philosophy  at  the  University  of  Bonn, 
appointed  by  the  constitutional  bishop  of 
Strasburg  professor  of  rhetoric  at  the 
Grand  Seminary,  and  afterwards  his  vicar- 
general,  was  all-powerful  in  Alsace,  and 
was  there  bringing  to  the  guillotine  whole- 
sale all  who  attempted  to  teach  Frenchmen 
the  love  of  country  and  liberty. 

Rohan  died  at  Ettenheim  on  February 
17,  1803,  after  appointing  as  his  universal 
legatee  Charlotte  Dorothea  de  Rohan- 
Rochefort,  daughter  of  Prince  Armand  de 
Rohan- Rochefort,  his  cousin-german.  She 
had  been  betrothed  to  the  handsome  Duke 


THE  CARDINAL  DE  ROHAN      239 

of  Enghien,  slain  by  Napoleon  s  orders  in 
the  moats  of  Vincennes,  and  under  the  in- 
structions of  General  Hulin,  who  had 
been  in  the  front  rank  of  the  conquerors 
of  the  Bastille. 


240     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 


XVI 

LAMOTTE-COLLIER 

We  have  seen  that  on  July  20,  1792,  the 
court  of  the  first  arrondissement  had 
quashed,  for  a  technical  flaw,  the  sentence 
passed  on  the  Count  de  La  Motte,  husband 
of  Jeanne  de  Valois,  by  the  Parlement. 
The  prisoner  was  transferred  to  the  Con- 
ciergerie,  there  to  await  the  definitive 
judgment  which  would  proclaim,  he  was 
assured,  his  complete  rehabilitation.  He 
was  still  in  prison  during  September ;  then, 
being  liberated,  and  escaping  the  massacre, 
he  returned  to  Bar-sur-Aube. 

On  December  6,  1793,  he  was  incar- 
cerated on  an  information  accusing  him  of 
being    in    correspondence    with    Pitt    and 


*^   Of   THE 


LAMOTTE-COLLIER  241 

Coburg,  and  confined  with  suspects  in  the 
Grand  Seminary  of  Troyes,  where  he  re- 
mained until  July  22,  1794.  But  he  was  no 
sooner  liberated  than  he  was  again  put 
under  lock  and  key,  and  detained  until 
October  16.  Liberated  once  more,  he 
married  for  the  second  time  at  Bar-sur- 
Aube,  his  wife  being  a  young  girl  named 
Marie  Clotilde  Boudon,  who  had  some 
means  of  her  own.  She  in  course  of  time 
presented  him  with  a  son.  This  son  de- 
parted about  1 8 1 7  for  Guadeloupe  with  the 
battalion  despatched  to  that  colony ;  but 
his  father  never  heard  of  him  again  :  the 
young  man  died  there  of  yellow  fever. 

Count  Beugnot  having  been  appointed 
director-general  of  the  police,  La  Motte 
applied  to  him  for  assistance.  Beugnot 
gave  him  that  and  more ;  he  gave  him 
the  control  of  the  theatre  of  the  Porte- 
Saint- Martin,  at  a  salary  of  3000  francs. 
As  we  know,  Beugnot  had  peculiar  reasons 
Q 


242     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

for  showing  benevolence  towards  the 
husband  of  Jeanne  de  Valois,  whom  he  had 
so  often  taken  to  dinner  at  the  Cadran  bleu. 
La  Motte  afterwards  fulfilled  the  same 
functions  at  the  same  remuneration  in  the 
gaming-houses.  But  he  could  never  retain  a 
situation  ;  he  was  an  incorrigible  Bohemian. 

*  In  1816,'  wrote  the  commissary  Marlot, 
who,  like  himself,  came  from  Bar-sur-Aube, 

*  M.  Delamotte  was  recommended  to  us, 
and  the  persons  who  sent  him  to  us  inspired 
us  with  so  much  respect  that  their  recom- 
mendation could  be  regarded  only  as  a 
sovereign  command.  We  solicited  for  him 
a  place  as  inspector  of  police,  and  had  him 
under  our  orders  for  about  three  years, 
under  the  name  of  Delmotte.'     The  Count 

(  de    La    Motte    a    police   agent   under   the 
Restoration! — the    irony    of   it    is   almost 

\^  overwhelming. 

During  this  period  of  his  life,  La  Motte 
thus   had  means  of  supporting  himself  in 


LAMOTTE-COLLIER  243 

a  regular  manner.  He  frequented  the 
houses  of  people  of  good  standing,  and  was 
received  in  several  drawing-rooms  described 
by  Victor  Hugo  as  *  very  good  and  very 
notable.'  As  is  well  known,  Hugo  incor- 
porated in  Les  Mis^rables  fragments  of 
personal  recollections,  and  he  speaks  of  the 
Count  de  La  Motte  in  a  vivid  and  striking 
manner/  He  shows  him  to  us  in  the 
Legitimist  drawing-room  in  the  Rue  F^rou, 
which  he  describes  in  precise  terms,  except 
that  he  mentions  the  habituds  only  by 
initials — all  but  La  Motte,  whom  he  names 
in  full. 

'Madame  de  T.,'  writes  Victor  Hugo, 
*  lived  far  from  the  court — '*a  very  mixed 
society,"  as  she  used  to  say — in  an  honour- 
able, proud,  penurious  isolation.  A  few 
friends  met  twice  a  week  around  her 
widowed  hearth,  constituting  a  purely 
Royalist  salon.      They  took  tea  together, 

1  Les  Misdrables^  Part  ill.  Marius :  Book  ni.  chap.  i. 


244     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

and  gave  vent,  according  as  the  tide  was 
set  towards  elegy  or  dithyrambs,  to  groan- 
ings  or  cries  of  horror  on  the  age,  the 
charter,  the  Bonapartists,  the  prostitution 
of  the  **blue  ribbon"  to  the  middle 
classes,  the  Jacobinism  of  Louis  xviii.  ;  and 
they  talked  under  their  breath  of  the 
hopes  awakened  by  Monsieur,  afterwards 
Charles  x. 

*  They  used  to  receive  with  shrieks  of 
mirth  vulgar  songs  in  which  Napoleon 
was  called  Nicolas,  Duchesses,  the  most 
refined  and  charming  women  of  good 
society,  went  into  raptures  over  rhymes 
like  this,  addressed  to  the  ''federals" — 

"  Renfoncez  dans  vos  culottes 
Le  bout  d'chemis'  qui  vous  pend ; 
Qu'on  n'  dis  pas  qu'  les  patriotes 
Ont  arbore  I'drapeau  blanc  ! " ' 

Such  was  the  society  frequented  in  the 
early  years  of  the  Restoration  by  the 
husband  of  the  late  Jeanne  de  Valois,  who 


LAMOTTE-COLLIER  245 

no  doubt  did  not  obtrude  the  functions  in 
which  he  was  then  employed  by  the  police. 
He  was  indeed  one  of  the  shining  lights  of 
the  company. 

*  Like  some  church  spires,'  writes  Victor 
Hugo,  *the  salon  of  the  Baronne  de  T. 
had  two  cocks.^  One  was  Dr.  Gillenor- 
mand,  the  other  the  Count  de  Lamotte- 
Valois,  about  whom  they  used  to  whisper 
to  each  other  with  a  sort  of  consideration, 
"You  know?  He's  the  Lamotte  of  the 
Necklace  business." ' 

La  Motte  appeared  to  the  baronne's 
guests  an  old  man  'with  nothing  remark- 
able about  him  but  his  silent  and  sententious 
air,  his  sharp  and  expressionless  features, 
his  perfectly  polished  manners,  his  coat 
buttoned  up  to  his  cravat,  and  his  long 
legs,  always  crossed,  in  loose  pantaloons, 
the  colour  of  burnt  sienna.     His  face  was 

[^  Coq  is  used  in  French  as  equivalent  to  our  '  cock  of  the 
walk.'] 


246     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

the  same  colour  as  his  pantaloons ! '  La 
Motte  was  a  valued  member  of  the  society 
that  met  in  the  Rue  Ferou.  He  owed  his 
position  to  his  'celebrity,'  and  strangely 
enough,  as  Hugo  justly  observes,  to  the  name 
of  Valois  which  he  tacked  on  to  his  own. 

The  count  appears,  however,  to  have 
rendered  some  service  as  a  police  officer, 
especially  in  the  conspiracy  against  the 
Duke  Decaze  in  which  Generals  Donnadieu 
and  Canuel  were  implicated.  He  was 
skilful  in  unearthing  the  authors  of  books 
and  pamphlets  which  were  to  be  proceeded 
against.  Now  it  happened  that  Louis  xviii. 
had  the  whim  to  set  on  foot  inquiries  about 
the  famous  Count  de  La  Motte.  The  in- 
vestigations intrusted  to  the  police  were 
not  long,  as  may  be  imagined,  in  bearing 
fruit,  and  the  king  was  not  a  little  surprised 
to  learn  that  the  husband  and  accomplice 
of  the  terrible  Jeanne  de  Valois  was  one 
of  the  agents  attached  to  his  own  intelli- 


LAMOTTE-COLLIER  247 

gence  service.  Louis  suggested  that  he 
should  compile  his  memoirs,  desiring  to 
read  them  as  written  by  his  own  hand. 
*  We  were  instructed,'  writes  the  commis- 
sary Marlot,  *  to  inform  M.  Delamotte,  and 
we  succeeded  in  inducing  him  to  do  what 
the  sovereign  desired.  But  at  the  end  of 
some  months  this  original  character  came 
and  told  us  that  he  should  finish  nothing 
unless  he  were  assured  of  a  pension  on 
the  civil  list.  This  demand  offended  the 
king,  and  M.  Delamotte  was  given  up : 
since  then,  he  has  vegetated  in  the  capital.' 

Meanwhile  he  had  lost  his  second  wife, 
whom  he  appears  to  have  sincerely  loved. 
From  that  time  he  sank  deeper  and  deeper 
into  want  and  wretchedness. 

In  1824  we  hear  of  him  again.  He  was 
lodging  at  No.  8  Rue  de  la  Clef,  and  was 
in  continuous  relation  with  a  retired  metal- 
turner  named  Pannisset,  an  advocate  named 
Maitre    Caille,    and    a    commission    agent 


248     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

named  Vinet-Barmont.  '  Profiting  by  the 
neglect  in  which  the  government  left  him,' 
notes  a  report  to  the  Minister  of  the 
Interior,  '  the  said  Lamotte-Collier  recently 
devised  a  swindling  scheme  which  is  by 
no  means  new  to  him,  and  very  closely 
resembles  the  first  swindles  he  so  fruitfully 
exploited  forty  years  ago  against  the  un- 
fortunate queen.  Lamotte  has  been  for 
some  time  occupied,  along  with  confeder- 
ates, in  the  fabrication  of  an  alleged 
correspondence  of  the  royal  family,  especi- 
ally of  the  late  king  Louis  xviii.  with 
Marat  and  Robespierre.'  A  very  wealthy 
Englishman  had  offered  a  large  sum  for 
these  documents.  La  Motte  tried  to  entice 
him  by  reading  a  few  extracts ;  but  the 
Englishman  wanted  the  originals.  '  Im- 
possible,' said  La  Motte;  'they  are  at 
Brussels.'  The  would-be  purchaser,  rightly 
distrusting  the  count,  broke  off  the  negotia- 
tions. 


LAMOTTE-COLLIER  249 

Then  the  count  threatened  a  second  time 
to  publish  his  memoirs,  giving  the  true 
story  of  the  Necklace,  he  said,  adding  in 
a  tone  of  deep  sadness  that  the  late  queen 
and  a  number  of  personages  of  the  old 
court  would  be  inevitably  compromised  in 
them,  in  spite  of  his  desire  to  avoid  such 
a  misfortune.  The  anxiety  of  the  restored 
monarchy  to  steer  clear  of  fresh  scandals 
may  be  imagined.  Delavau,  the  prefect 
of  police,  got  his  friend  Pannisset  to  speak 
to  La  Motte.  He  was  offered  an  assured 
income,  provided  he  drew  up  a  true  account 
of  the  events  in  which  he  had  been  con- 
cerned, and  placed  it  in  the  hands  of  the 
government.  The  bargain  was  struck, 
and  the  prefect  provided  La  Motte  with  a 
lodging  in  Rue  Copeau.  He  there  received 
a  monthly  pension  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
francs,  and  in  addition,  the  clothes  and  other 
articles  he  needed.  Pannisset  made  the  pur- 
chases, and  his  outlay  was  refunded  by  the 


250     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

prefect  of  police.  This  lasted  through  the 
years  1824  and  1825.  La  Motte  compiled 
his  memoirs,  and  handed  them  to  Pannisset 
when  completed,  getting  a  receipt  stating 
that  he  remained  the  owner.  Pannisset 
transmitted  them  to  his  friend  the  prefect. 

They  were  a  tissue  of  gross  and  absurd 
lies.  The  prefect  and  the  Minister  of  the 
Interior  saw  that  they  had  been  fooled,  and 
sent  the  author  about  his  business.  He 
went  to  lodge  with  an  English  doctor 
named  Harkell  in  Rue  de  la  Michodiere, 
afterwards  going  to  live  in  the  village  of 
Orsel. 

Early  in  1827  a  lawsuit,  which  made 
some  stir  because  '  Lamotte-Collier,'  as 
he  had  been  called  for  some  years,  was 
concerned  in  it,  recalled  him  to  public 
notice.  In  1793,  as  we  have  said,  he  had 
been  arrested  at  Troyes  as  a  suspect. 
Ingenious  in  turning  the  most  trivial  cir- 
cumstances  to    his    advantage,    La   Motte 


LAMOTTE-COLLIER  251 

had  claimed  50,000  francs  damages  against 
the  two  officers  commanding  the  detach- 
ment by  which  he  had  been  apprehended, 
alleging  that  they  had  robbed  him  of  horses, 
expensive  weapons,  and  other  articles  of 
value.  The  two  officers,  campaigning  with 
the  army  of  the  Rhine,  had  even  been 
condemned  by  default.  La  Motte  now 
revived  the  affair  after  thirty  years.  There 
was  a  sensation  among  the  audience  when 
the  advocate  of  the  defendants  explained 
in  open  court  exactly  who  the  plaintiff  was.  / 
*  The  murderer  of  the  queen ! '  some  one 
cried  out.  '  La  Motte's  advocate,'  we  read 
in  the  Gazette  des  Tribunaux,  *  hinting  that 
he  still  had  the  protection  of  people  in  high 
places,  and  received  support  from  their 
beneficence — he  even  murmured  the  word 
**  government " — there  was  a  no  less  lively 
sensation  in  the  audience  than  in  the  royal 
court'  A  report  to  the  Minister  of  the 
Interior  notes  down  some  of  the   sayings 


252     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

of  the  crowd.  '  How  can  there  be  any- 
possible  connection  between  such  a  man 
and  any  one  of  the  ministers,  I  don't  care 
who  it  is?' 

*  The  police  will  make  use  of  anybody.' 
*If  the  police  do  their  duty,   now   that 

another  scandal  has  been  caused  by  the 
appearance  of  the  queen's  murderer,  they 
can't  fail  to  lock  him  up  in  Bicetre.' 

*  Maitre  Lavaux,'  continues  the  Gazette 
des  Tribunaux,  '  addressed  the  court  for  the 
defendants.  In  regard  to  the  losses  alleged 
by  the  Count  de  La  Motte,  he  lost  in  reality 
only  a  powder-horn,  a  pair  of  pistols,  a 
pair  of  scissors,  and  a  razor  (laughter). 
It  was  true  that  a  judgment  was  obtained 
by  surprise  against  the  defendants  in  their 
absence.  The  case  he  is  trying  to  resus- 
citate is  simply  an  attempt  to  raise  the 
wind.  He  has  printed  slanderous  memoirs, 
and  threatened  the  defendants  that  he  will 
publish   them ;    but   they  refused    to   have 


LAMOTTE-COLLIER  253 

anything  to  do  with  him/  La  Motte  was 
fined  and  condemned  in  costs. 

This  case,  which  had  directed  public  at- 
tention afresh  to  the  Count  de  La  Motte, 
had  unpleasant  consequences  for  him.  He 
had  formed  the  habit  of  taking  a  daily- 
walk  in  the  galleries  of  the  Palais  Royal. 
Noticed,  he  was  hissed  and  hooted  away 
by  the  people  walking  there.  He  then  fell 
back  on  the  Luxembourg,  a  quieter  and  less 
frequented  spot. 

He  was  lodging  at  this  time  at  the  house 
of  a  lady  named  Legrand.  Aged  seventy- 
five,  infirm,  crippled  with  gout  and  rheu- 
matism, unable  to  drag  himself  along  without 
crutches,  we  find  him  trading  to  the  last 
moment  of  his  life  on  the  scandal  of  his 
name,  and  on  the  injury  he  would  do  to  the 
royal  power  by  the  revelations  he  was  con- 
stantly announcing  as  a  thunderbolt.  And 
in  truth  it  almost  seems  as  though  the  very 
spirit   of  his   first  wife  were   at  this  time 


254     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

animating  his  shattered  frame.  In  a  letter 
of  March  24,  1827,  Delavau,  the  prefect  of 
poHce,  writes  to  the  Minister  of  the  Interioi:: 
'  He  has  just  collected  in  a  fresh  memoir  all 
the  slanders  and  inventions  he  had  already- 
written  elsewhere,  and  he  is  looking  for 
some  one  who  will  be  good  enough  to  buy 
his  disgraceful  manuscript.' 

La  Motte  had  known  intimately  the 
costumier  Babin,  who  had  died  recently, 
and  he  continued  to  visit  his  house.  Babin's 
widow  gave  him  his  meals  on  the  days — and 
they  were  numerous — when  his  purse  did 
not  contain  enough  to  buy  food. 

At  Madame  Babin's  he  met  the  bookseller 
Correard,  and  made  an  agreement  with  him 
for  the  publication  of  new  memoirs  on  the 
everlasting  Necklace  affair  —  memoirs  so 
compiled  as  to  tickle  the  palate  of  the 
public.  But  as  La  Motte,  old,  infirm,  in- 
capable of  writing,  could  not  hold  a  pen, 
Correard    gave    him    as    collaborator    (as 


LAMOTTE-COLLIER  255 

*  toucher-up,'  said  La  Motte)  a  young 
schoolmaster  living  at  Saint-Denis,  a  native 
of  Bar-sur-Aube  like  himself.  His  name 
was  Charles  Fellens.  La  Motte  undertook 
to  furnish  within  a  specified  time  sufficient 
material  for  three  octavo  volumes  on  the 
Necklace  case,  the  whole  to  be  revised  and 
corrected  by  Fellens.  While  the  work  was 
in  progress  the  count  had  arranged  to  live 
with  Fellens,  who  would  provide  him  with 
food  and  all  other  necessaries.  After  the 
first  volume  was  issued  he  was  to  receive 
an  annuity  of  1200  francs,  the  amount  for 
the  first  year  to  be  paid  in  advance. 

Here  then  we  have  our  friend  at  Saint- 
Denis,  in  Fellens'  house,  literally  under 
lock  and  key — *in  arbitrary  confinement/ 
as  said  a  certain  Madame  Perrot,  none 
other  than  Jeanne  de  La  Tour,  La  Motte's 
niece,  who  had  so  prettily  played  the  inno- 
cent young  thing  in  Cagliostro's  magic 
stances.     From  morning  till  night  La  Motte 


256     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

scribbled  away.  Correard  put  at  his  dis- 
position all  the  pamphlets  and  documents 
he  could  procure  on  the  Necklace  affair,  and 
he  worked  zealously  at  his  compilation,  so 
that  the  bookseller  was  at  first  highly  pleased 
with  the  progress  made.  But  gradually  his 
ardour  cooled.  His  temporary  supervision 
of  the  gaming-houses  had  bred  in  him  a 
passion,  which  grew  stronger  with  age,  for 
calculating  chances  at  roulette  and  trente- 
et-un.  One  day  Fellens  saw  on  his  table  a 
quantity  of  cards,  and  leaves  of  paper  com- 
pletely covered  with  figures.  Asking  an 
explanation,  he  was  instructed  by  La  Motte 
in  the  science  of  gambling.  He  conceived 
a  passion  for  it,  and  then  both  of  them, 
author  and  *  toucher-up,*  throwing  aside  the 
manufacture  of  memoirs,  might  have  been 
seen  playing  at  cards  from  night  till  morn- 
ing, and  from  morning  till  night  calculating 
the  probabilities.  Fellens  was  so  blindly 
infatuated  with  his  tutor's  method  that  he 


LAMOTTE-COLLIER  257 

decided  to  sell  his  school,  and  with  the 
proceeds  to  break  all  the  banks  in  the 
capital  at  trente-et-un. 

The  new  prefect  of  police,  De  Belleyme, 
hearing  about  the  scheme  for  publishing 
memoirs  on  the  Necklace,  intervened  as  his 
predecessor  had  done.  Once  more  applica- 
tion was  made  to  M.  Pannisset,  the  quondam 
metal-turner,  now  tenant  of  the  Henri  iv. 
baths.  On  September  i,  1828,  the  count 
signed  the  following  receipt,  which  he  placed 
in  Pannisset's  hands  : — 

*  I,  the  undersigned,  acknowledge  the  re-*^ 
ceipt  from  M.  Pannisset  of  the  sum  of  500 
francs,  in  return  for  which  I  agree  not  to 
demand  from  him,  or  from  any  one  whatso- 
ever, the  return  of  the  notes  relative  to  the 
Necklace  affair  which  I  have  given  him  at 
different  times,  and  also  bind  myself  to 
write  no  more  on  that  subject,  nor  to  furnish 
any  material  whatsoever  relating  to  it*  "^ 

It  may  be  imagined  that  his  project  of 

R 


258     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

publishing  memoirs  was  now  definitively 
given  up.  '  Under  a  simple  exterior,'  says  a 
note  from  the  prefecture  of  police  addressed 
about  this  time  to  the  Minister  of  the 
Interior,  *  La  Motte  is  really  very  crafty.' 

On  January  5,  1829,  four  months  after 
signing  the  above  undertaking,  he  wrote  to 
Belleyme,  the  prefect  of  police  :  '  The 
moment  I  learnt  of  your  appointment  to 
succeed  M.  Delavau,  hope  sprang  up  anew 
in  my  heart,  and  I  thought  I  should  succeed 
in  making  known  the  wrong-doing  and  in- 
justice of  your  predecessor.  Then  I  got 
Dr.  Harkell  to  present  to  you  the  true 
story  of  the  conduct  of  M.  Delavau  and 
his  agents  in  trying  to  persuade  me  to 
write  my  memoirs  and  deliver  the  manu- 
script to  them.  I  had  been  recommended 
not  to  compromise  the  queen.  I  have  as 
much  as  possible  avoided  the  suspicions 
hovering  about  her,  and  only  too  well 
founded.'     Note  the  last  phrase. 


LAMOTTE-COLLIER  259 

La  Motte  adds  that  he  has  made  up  his 
mind  to  sue  Pannisset  before  the  courts  for 
the  restitution  of  the  manuscript  of  his 
memoirs,  which  he  had  been  prudent 
enough  to  hand  over  only  in  exchange  for 
a  receipt  acknowledging  that  Pannisset  held 
them  merely  in  trust.  Then  M.  Gauthier, 
head  of  the  third  police  bureau,  intervened, 
says  La  Motte,  and  urged  Pannisset  to 
make  an  amicable  arrangement  in  order 
to  avoid  the  scandal  of  publicity.  '  At  this 
time  I  was  in  a  very  unfortunate  plight. 
M.  Gauthier  knew  this,  and  thought  that 
in  my  distress  I  should  be  glad  enough  to 
accept  any  trifle.  On  the  verge  of  being 
homeless  and  without  food,  I  was  forced  to 
accept  the  500  francs  which  Gauthier  offered 
me,  out  of  which  Pannisset  kept  55  francs 
for  his  expenses.  So  I  received  445  francs, 
and  of  this  sum  I  owed  300  to  my  landlord 
for  board  and  lodging.  M.  Gauthier  took 
care  to  make  me  give  him  a  receipt,   in 


26o     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

which  it  was  said  that  I  agreed  to  return 
to  Pannisset  the  receipt  I  got  from  him, 
never  to  write  again  on  this  subject,  and 
never  to  supply  anybody  with  notes  that 
could  serve  the  same  object.'  And  he  goes 
on  :  *  There 's  an  old  proverb  which  says 
''necessity  has  no  law."  I  should  have 
signed  anything  that  was  put  before  me  at 
that  critical  moment.' 

La  Motte  could  not  believe  that  the 
prefect  of  police  had  had  any  hand  in 
this  transaction.  'About  a  fortnight  ago/ 
he  continues,  'finding  myself  in  the  same 
situation  as  that  in  which  I  was  forced  to 
accept  the  500  francs  from  M.  Gauthier,  a 
person  of  my  acquaintance,  to  whom  I  had 
revealed  my  distress,  proposed  to  present 
me  to  a  person  who  might  be  useful  to 
me  and  perhaps  secure  me  a  livelihood. 
I  did  not  hesitate,  and  allowed  myself  to 
be  taken  to  him.  I  found  two  persons 
instead  of  one.     They  proposed   to  make 


LAMOTTE-COLLIER  261 

arrangements  with  me  to  take  up  my 
memoirs  afresh,  without  concealing  any- 
thing about  the  numerous  persons  who 
had  figured  in  the  Necklace  affair.  To 
come  to  a  complete  understanding  on  all 
these  points,  they  had  a  second  meeting 
with  me  in  the  country  on  December  28 
last.  I  met  the  two  gentlemen,  and  they 
showed  me  three  sheets  of  stamped  paper 
on  a  table,  telling  me  that  we  should  have 
time  to  draw  up  three  deeds  before  dinner. 
I  stopped  them  for  a  moment  to  inform 
them  of  the  agreement  M.  Gauthier  had 
made  me  sign,  but  told  them  that  I  regarded 
the  agreement  as  null  and  void  after  the 
conduct  that  had  been  shown  towards  me, 
comparing  him,  in  the  position  in  which 
I  then  found  myself,  to  a  man  demanding 
my  money  or  my  life  in  the  depths  of  a 
wood,  and  presenting  a  pistol  at  my  head.' 

The  two  gentlemen  were  charmed  with 
the  comparison,  but  thought  the  agreement 


262     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

constituted  an  obstacle  to  the  publication  of 
new  memoirs. 

'  Is  that  all  ?  Why,  that 's  the  best  of  it ! 
They  will  attack  you  ;  all  the  better  for  our 
interests  and  yours  if  they  make  a  scandal. 
We  will  defend  ourselves,  and  the  editions 
will  go  off  all  the  quicker.' 

La  Motte  then  enumerates  the  excellent 
terms  made  with  him:  a  salary  of  1200 
francs,  and  200  francs  extra  for  every  new 
edition.  There  was  also  talk  of  reprinting 
the  memoirs  of  Madame  de  La  Motte  burnt 
in  the  furnace  at  Sevres ;  by  so  doing  his 
annual  income  would  be  raised  by  100 
livres. 

He  concludes :  *  In  this  state  of  things, 
wishing  to  avoid  scandal,  my  age,  my  in- 
firmities, and  my  repugnance  to  making 
myself  talked  about,  and  especially  to 
offending  the  royal  family  by  the  confessions 
and  the  details  I  should  have  been  forced 
to  give  in  the  course  of  the  work,  decided 


'    LAMOTTE-COLLIER  263 

me  before  writing  a  single  line  to  consult 
you  as  to  what  I  ought  to  do,  for  it  will  be 
an  easy  matter  to  treat  with  these  gentle- 
men. 

*  I  will  merely  mention  to  you,  Monsieur 
the  Prefect,  that  the  death  of  the  unfortunate 
Louis  XVI.  left  me  without  means  of  sub- 
sistence, and  that  if  Louis  xviii.,  who  had 
desired  to  know  all  the  details  of  this  affair 
[we  have  seen  above  what  had  induced 
the  king  to  give  up  his  desire],  had  lived 
a  few  months  longer,  I  should  not  have 
been  reduced  to-day  to  begging  your  pro- 
tection in  order  to  obtain  an  equivalent  for 
the  agreement  made  with  these  gentlemen. 
If  I  obtain  this  favour  from  you,  I  shall 
pass  the  remainder  of  my  days  in  peace  and 
happiness.  I  am  seventy-five  years  old.  I 
am  crushed  by  infirmities,  and  have  scarcely 
strength  enough  left  to  drag  myself  along 
with  crutches.  In  this  unhappy  state  I  am 
expecting  every  day  to  succumb,  owing  to 


264     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

the  awful  pain  I  suffer  and  the  falls  I  am 
constantly  having.  The  government  or  the 
persons  with  whom  I  have  been  in  treaty 
will  not  have  me  long  as  an  annuitant.' 

The  concluding  passage  is  presented  with 
all  the  formality  and  the  flattery  he  thinks 
necessary.  '  The  eulogy  which  is  passed 
on  your  administration,  added  to  the 
eminent  qualities  which  distinguish  you, 
persuade  me  that  you  will  use  your  credit  to 
prevent  a  scandal.  I  am  assured  that  in 
your  wisdom  and  intelligence  you  will  well 
weigh  the  course  that  should  be  adopted 
in  these  circumstances.  I  am  at  ease 
regarding  the  future.' 

A  perfect  letter  in  its  kind  :  ingeniously 
woven  subtleties,  insinuations,  unctuous  in 
their  impudence,  a  honeyed  and  unblushing 
attempt  at  extortion. 

The  prefect  of  police  remitted  the  matter 
to  the  commissary  Marlot,  who  replied  on 
July  i6,   1829:  *I  have  known  the  Count 


LAMOTTE-COLLIER  265 

de  La  Motte  since  his  childhood.  He  is  a 
fellow-countryman  of  mine,  and  I  knew  him 
in  his  days  of  splendour  and  renown,  as 
well  as  in  the  poverty  into  which  he  is  ever 
sinking  deeper.  He  has  been  writing  for 
five  months  as  often  as  his  feeble  health 
permits,  and  submitting  pages  for  Fellens' 
correction  as  he  writes  them.  He  has 
already  completed  twenty-eight  manuscript 
books,  which  they  calculate  will  make  two 
volumes.  They  are  padding  them  out  to 
make  three  if  they  can.  On  Monday  the  1 3th 
M.  Fellens  came  to  Paris,  accompanied  by 
M.  de  La  Motte,  whom  he  keeps  a  tight  hold 
on.  They  left  a  part  of  the  manuscript  with 
Corr^ard,  enough  for  the  first  volume.  The 
printer  is  going  to  begin  at  once,  and  the 
other  two  volumes  will  follow  as  rapidly  as 
possible,  so  that  they  may  be  issued  to  the 
public  within  two  months  at  the  latest. 
M.  de  La  Motte  is  very  anxious  to  have  an 
interview  with  me,  and  wants  to  be  freed 


266     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

from  the  clutches  of  Fellens,  of  whom  he 
has  a  good  deal  to  complain.  He  asks  for 
a  pension,  in  return  for  which  he  would  un- 
dertake to  publish  nothing.  Would  he  keep 
his  word  ?  I  doubt  it,  and  I  should  be  very- 
sorry  to  go  bail  for  him  in  that  respect.' 

The  commissary  concludes :  *  This  La 
Motte  is  an  old  man  as  hardened  in  vice 
as  he  is  to  reverses.  We  doubt  whether  he 
has  enough  inclination  towards  good  to  be 
honest  and  remain  faithful  to  an  engage- 
ment. Nevertheless,  as  he  is  infirm,  in- 
dolent, and  incapable  of  doing  anything  by 
himself,  it  will  be  a  great  thing  if  Fellens 
can  be  detached  from  him  and  strictly 
forbidden  to  ply  the  trade  of  pamphleteer 
(does  he  not,  in  his  capacity  as  schoolmaster, 
depend  on  the  minister  of  public  instruc- 
tion ?).  Madame  Perrot,  the  niece  (formerly 
Jeanne  de  La  Tour),  assures  me  that  the 
memoirs  will  be  virulent  and  scandalous, 
and  that  no  august  name  will  be  spared.' 


LAMOTTE-COLLIER  267 

Further,  Marlot  was  to  have  an  interview 
at  the  first  opportunity  with  La  Motte 
himself.  He  met  him  on  July  17.  The 
count  repeated  that  he  was  anxious  not  to 
have  his  memoirs  printed.  *  He  would  give 
up  the  idea,'  says  Marlot,  *  if  the  govern- 
ment would  guarantee  him  a  pension.'  It 
would  not  be  for  long,  he  adds,  since  La 
Motte  was  in  such  a  state  of  decrepitude 
that  it  was  impossible  to  think  he  could  last 
much  longer. 

These  projects  of  publishing  the  memoirs 
of  Count  de  La  Motte  and  reprinting  those 
of  his  wife  formed  part  of  a  larger  plan  of 
campaign  against  the  late  queen  Marie 
Antoinette,  whom  the  *  patriots '  continued 
to  regard  as  insufficiently  guillotined.  Atj^ 
this  very  time,  Baudouin,  the  bookseller, 
was  occupied  in  publishing  certain  letters 
alleged  to  have  been  written  by  her  and  to 
her  before  and  during   the   Revolution,   in 


268     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

which  details  of  high  relish  were  expected. 
'  M.  Baudouin,'  says  a  report  to  the  Minister 
of  the  Interior,  dated  August  2,  1829,  'has 
already  given  so  many  marks  of  hatred 
against  religion  and  the  monarchy,  by  print- 
ing seditious  writings,  that  several  members 
of  the  Bourbon  family,  as  he  says  himself, 
could  not  but  be  justly  alarmed  at  the 
announcement  mentioned  above.'  The 
report  gives  other  details  :  *  It  is  no  doubt 
on  account  of  his  devotion  to  the  anti- 
religious  and  anti-monarchical  cause,  and 
by  way  of  encouragement  and  a  mark  of 
affection,  that  the  Society  of  the  Temple, 
of  which  he  is  a  member,  has  intrusted  to 
him  the  high  functions  of  general  steward 
of  the  estates  of  the  order;  an  honorary 
office,  it  is  true,  since  the  order  of  the  said 
Templars  possesses  no  known  estates.' 

On  Saturday,  August  i,  a  Templar  had 
visited  Baudouin,  and  found  him  walking 
up  and  down  in  the  gardens  of  the  mad- 


LAMOTTE-COLLIER  269 

house  in  Rue  de  I'Oursine,  where  he  was 
then  living.  Baudouin  knew  that  the 
government  had  written  to  Vienna. 

*  For  all  that,  I  am  in  possession  of  some 
original  and  authentic  copies  of  the  letters 
I  have  announced  for  publication.' 

*  But  aren't  you  afraid  of  a  surprise  raid  ? ' 
asked  the  Templar. 

*  That  was  thought  of,  but  they  haven't 
dared  to  do  it.  Besides,  I  have  taken 
measures  to  protect  my  papers  from  forcible 
seizure.  They  sent  detectives  to  me  to 
try  to  pick  up  a  few  stray  bits  of  paper. 
They  've  made  me  offers,  or  hinted  at  doing 
so,  but  I  have  paid  them  no  attention.' 

*  I  must  tell  you,'  said  the  Templar,  *  that 
some  people  are  afraid  you  will  give  way.' 

*  No  fear  of  that.  It's  too  good  a  thing 
for  the  patriots.  I  am  a  child  of  the 
Revolution.' 

A  note  affixed  to  the  report  gives  the 
information  that  these  letters  of  the  queen 


2/0     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

extended  from  the  year  1788  to  her  in- 
carceration at  the  Temple.  They  were 
addressed  to  the  Emperor  of  Austria, 
Madame  de  Polignac,  the  Duke  of  Luxem- 
bourg, and  several  persons  at  court.  The 
greater  part  were  copies  of  letters  in  cipher. 
All  were  apocryphal. 

About  the  middle  of  August  1829, 
Marlot  had  a  second  interview  with  La 
Motte,  who  came  to  see  him  of  his  own 
accord.  *  He  came  to  sound  us,'  writes  the 
police  officer,  'on  our  ideas  as  to  the 
intentions  of  the  new  Ministry  (the  Polignac 
Ministry),  desiring  to  learn  if  the  present 
authorities  entered  into  the  views  of  MM. 
de  Martignac  and  Belleyme,  which  appeared 
to  be  to  purchase  the  silence  of  this  wretch, 
in  guaranteeing  him  a  pension,  and  in- 
demnifying his  collaborators,  Fellens  and 
Correard.  We  stood  on  the  greatest  re- 
serve in  this  matter  with  M.  de  La  Motte, 
contenting  ourselves  with   persuading  him 


LAMOTTE-COLLIER  271 

to  temporise,  to  act  with  circumspection, 
and  not  to  run  risks  that  would  be  fatal, 
not  to  his  reputation,  which  is  a  mere 
illusion  for  a  man  of  his  stamp,  but  to  his 
personal  security.  He  appeared  to  pay- 
heed  to  our  remarks,  or  rather,  they 
seemed  to  scare  him,  by  suggesting  to  his 
mind  a  future  of  worry  as  the  inevitable 
consequence  of  his  unpleasant  publications. 

*  M.  de  La  Motte,'  continues  Marlot,  'con- 
fided to  us  that  his  work  contained  some 
very  virulent  passages,  and  in  particular 
some  curious  revelations  on  the  intimacy 
between  the  late  queen  and  Madame  de 
Polignac,  mother  of  the  present  minister.' 

Then  follows  a  passage  which  it  is  im- 
possible to  reproduce  :  its  purport  may  be 
conjectured. 

*At  this,'  adds  Marlot,  'we  could  not 
contain  our  indignation,  and  we  told  M. 
de  La  Motte  pretty  plainly  that  if  such 
disgusting     things     came     out,     the     only 


272     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

possible  result  for  him  would  be  disgrace 
and  a  severe  sentence.  He  left  us,  promis- 
ing with  his  tongue  in  his  cheek  that  he 
would  think  it  over/ 

The  prefect  of  police  sent  to  the  Minister 
of  the  Interior  a  report  in  which  the  details 
given  by  Marlot  were  summarised.  The 
report  added  :  *  It  will  soon  be  a  year  since 
La  Motte-Valois  proposed  to  sell  his  silence 
to  the  Administration.  He  asked  for  a 
pension  of  three  or  four  hundred  francs, 
and  a  shelter  at  the  Hospice  of  Chaillot. 
This  offer  was  not  accepted  ;  perhaps  it 
might  be  renewed.'  A  marginal  note  tells 
us  that  the  minister  thought  there  was  no 
occasion  to  reopen  the  matter.  The 
promises  of  La  Motte  struck  him  as 
unreliable. 

There  were  two  separate  compilations  of 
the  Memoirs  of  Nicolas  de  La  Motte  :  the 
first  handed  to   Pannisset  in   1824,    trans- 


LAMOTTE-COLLIER  273 

mitted  by  him  to  the  prefecture  of  police, 
and  deposited  in  the  archives  of  the 
prefecture,  whence  it  shortly  afterwards 
disappeared.  But  in  the  sequel  the 
manuscript  was  discovered,  as  is  shown 
by  the  following  letter,  dated  August  8, 
1829,  addressed  by  Belleyme  to  the 
Minister  of  the  Interior  : — 

*  I  have  the  honour  to  transmit  to  your 
excellency  the  manuscript  of  the  Memoirs  of 
M.  Delamotte-Valois,  which  M.  Duplessis, 
late  chief  of  division  at  the  prefecture,  has 
just  handed  to  me,  to  make  what  use  of  it 
your  excellency  thinks  fit.' 

This  first  compilation,  still  unpublished,  is 
preserved  to-day  in  the  National  Archives. 
A  second  version,  which  La  Motte  tried  to 
get  bought  up,  as  we  have  seen,  was 
compiled  in  collaboration  with  Fellens.  It 
was  published  long  after  its  author's  death 
by  Louis  Lacour,  numerous  passages 
being  suppressed. 


274     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

The  compilation  and  publication  of  these 
Memoirs,  for  the  sake  of  the  profit  he  hoped 
to  derive  through  the  scandal  they  would 
create,  was  La  Motte  s  constant  preoccupa- 
tion during  the  last  part  of  his  life,  just  as 
the  publication  of  her  memoirs  had  filled  the 
last  days  of  his  wife  Jeanne  de  Valois.  Both 
regarded  them  simply  as  a  means  of  bringing 
pressure  to  bear  on  the  royal  government, 
alarmed  at  the  sensation  they  were  bound 
to  make. 

The  Memoirs  of  the  Count  de  La  Motte, 
often  quoted  from  the  edition  issued  by 
Louis  Lacour  in  1858,  are,  to  put  it  shortly, 
of  no  historical  value  whatever :  they  are  a 
tissue  of  lies  and  clumsy  fables.  Doubtless 
they  contain  authentic  details  which  it 
would  be  very  interesting  to  sift  out  and 
collect :  but  how  is  it  possible  to  distinguish 
them  among  the  heaps  of  falsehoods  ?  La 
Motte  composed  his  account  of  the  Necklace 
affair  forty  years  after  the   events,    at   an 


LAMOTTE-COLLIER  275 

advanced  age,  and  in  deplorable  weakness 
and  decrepitude.  And  finally,  he  made  . 
great  use  of  other  works  relating  to  those 
events,  works  supplied  him  by  his  associates ; 
so  that  his  Memoirs  are  not  even  personal 
recollections,  nor  was  it  he  who  held  the  pen. 

The  prefecture  of  police  resolved  to 
ignore  the  opinion  expressed  by  the  minister 
in  his  marginal  note  to  its  report.  Possibly, 
indeed,  the  minister  himself  changed  his 
mind.  Whether  or  no,  La  Motte  was  again  y 
pensioned,  from  dread  of  a  scandal.  As 
we  have  just  seen,  his  Memoirs  did  not 
appear  until  after  his  death. 

*0n  September  14,  1829,' writes  Lafont 
d'Aussonne,  *  as  I  was  crossing  the  Luxem- 
bourg wood  on  my  way  to  the  gate  nearest  the 
Rue  Cassette,  I  caught  sight  of  the  Count  de 
La  Motte  entering  the  great  chestnut  avenue. 
I  followed  his  stumbling  footsteps  as  he 
shuffled  along  heavily  on  his  two  crutches. 


276     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

His  elegant  and  careful  get-up,  his  perfectly 
polished  manners,  his  courtly  mode  of  saluta- 
tion, spoke  in  his  favour.  The  ladies  sitting 
on  the  seat  moved  up  so  that  he  might  be 
more  comfortable.  I  placed  myself  very 
near  the  count,  and  called  him  aloud  by  his 
name.'  They  entered  into  conversation. 
*M.  de  Belleyme,'  said  the  count,  *  continued 
to  give  me  a  little  pension  of  loo  louis  out  of 
the  police  funds.  He  sent  for  me  as  I 
was  finishing  the  revision  of  my  Memoirs. 
He  condescended  to  announce  his  change 
of  plans  for  the  following  week.  "•  Drop 
all  these  stories,"  he  said  to  me  as  we 
separated.' 

La  Motte  was  at  this  time  living  with 
his  niece,  Madame  Perrot,  at  17  Rue  des 
Cannettes. 

We  meet  him  for  the  last  time  in  the 
eventful  days  of  July  1830,  at  the  age  of 
seventy-seven.  He  was  caught  in  a  crowd, 
and    fell   wounded.      The   officer  of   gen- 


LAMOTTE-COLLIER  277 

darmerie  who  was  on  duty  had  him  carried 
to  a  neighbouring  house.  On  October  11, 
1 83 1,  he  entered  the  hospital  of  St.  Louis, 
and  died  there  on  November  6.  In  the 
last  years  of  his  life  he  had  made  several 
attempts  at  suicide.  *  I  followed  the  river- 
bank  as  far  as  Villeneuve-Saint-Georges. 
With  the  help  of  my  two  hands,  I  slid 
down  to  the  edge  of  the  embankment.  I 
looked  at  the  spot  where  I  was  going  to 
fall,  and  was  on  the  point  of  letting  go  the 
grass  I  was  firmly  holding,  when,  plunging 
my  eyes  into  the  depths  about  to  swallow 
me  up,  I  fancied  I  saw  billows  of  blood 
rolling  down  the  stream.'  These  billows  of 
blood,  he  declares,  recalled  to  his  mind  the 
events  of  September,  and  he  lost  all  desire 
to  commit  suicide. 

His  death  is  announced  in  t\i^  Journal  de 
Paris  in  the  following  terms :  '  M.  Musto- 
phragasis.  Count  de  Valois,  Knight  of  St. 
Louis  and  of  the  Crown,  noble  of  Angou- 


278     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

leme,  has  just  died  in  Paris,  at  an  advanced 
age,  and  in  poverty.  He  was  the  husband 
of  the  famous  Madame  de  La  Motte-Valois. 
He  was  generally  known  by  the  name  of 
Valois-Collier.' 


LEGENDS  279 


V 

XVII 

LEGENDS 

So  great  was  the  impression  produced  by 
the  Necklace  affair  that,  as  often  happens 
in  similar  circumstances,  the  principal  actors 
in  the  drama  came  to  life  again  after  their 
deaths. 

In  1793,  the  Count  de  Semalld  met  at 
Liege  the  Baronne  d'Oliva,  who  had  been 
buried  at  Vincennes  on  June  25,  1789. 
This  reincarnation  of  the  pretty  Nicole 
Leguay  was  married  to  a  certain  M.  de  La 
Tour,  and  in  concert  with  him  was  passing 
forged  notes  in  various  parts  of  France.  Her 
resemblance  to  the  queen,  says  Semalle, 
was  striking.  *  She  assured  me  more  than 
once  that  she  had  no  suspicion  of  the  odious 


28o     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

part  she  had  been  made  to  play  in  the 
intrigue,  and  that  she  had  been  the  dupe 
of  Madame  de  La  Motte.'  But  one  morning 
Semalle  learnt  that  the  soi-disant  Baronne 
d'Oliva  had  quietly  absconded,  along  with 
her  husband. 

The  last  of  the  biographers  of  Madame 
de  La  Motte,  M.  Louis  de  Soudak,  found 
the  heroine  (who,  as  we  have  seen,  died 
in  London  on  August  23,  1791)  in  the 
Crimea  in  1825.  Staroi-Krim  bears  little 
trace  to-day  of  the  incomparable  Solkata  of 
the  Armenian  poets,  the  rival  of  Stamboul, 
which  the  finest  cavaliers  of  the  Golden 
Band  could  barely  ride  round  at  a  gallop 
in  half  a  day.  Where  once  rose  the  ancient 
ramparts  are  now  ditches,  almost  filled  with 
sand  by  the  winds  of  the  Steppes.  Beyond 
them  is  an  old  mosque  propped  up  by  rude 
beams,  and  traces  of  the  ancient  palaces, 
pulled  to  pieces  by  hands  eager  to  construct 
new  dwellings,    which    in    their    turn    are 


LEGENDS  281 

crumbling  away.  In  that  spot  there  exists 
the  garden  of  an  Armenian  potter,  and  in 
the  garden  may  be  found  an  old  man  seated 
on  a  large  stone.  In  slow  tones  and  with 
measured  gesture  the  greybeard  relates  as 
follows : — 

*  There  used  to  be  in  these  parts  a 
Countess  Gachet,  a  former  Queen  of  France, 
who  had  stolen  a  Necklace.  I  was  a  little 
fellow  when  she  called  me  to  her  side,  to 
amuse  me  with  a  large  diamond,  which 
she  turned  round  in  the  sunlight  at  the 
end  of  a  golden  chain,  till  it  made  me 
blink.  When  she  died,  and  was  undressed 
to  wash  her  body,  two  letters  were  found 
branded  on  her  shoulders.' 

*  It  is  strange,'  says  Louis  de  Soudak, 
'that  the  name  and  the  story  of  the 
heroine  of  the  Necklace  case  should  have 
reached  the  Crimea  at  a  time  when  that 
peninsula  had  few  inhabitants  but  Tartars 
and  absolutely  ignorant  Greek  fishermen.' 


282     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

*  In  1894,'  continues  the  traveller,  *I 
stopped  one  beautiful  sunny  morning  at 
Gourzouf,  near  Yalto,  under  a  superb  plane- 
tree,  at  the  spot  where  it  appears  that 
Poushkin  wrote  some  of  his  finest  verses. 
Seeing  a  Tartar  passing  by,  I  asked  him 
what  interesting  things  were  to  be  seen  in 
the  district.  Indicating  the  north  by  a 
gesture,  he  answered:  **At  Artek,  a  few 
versts  in  that  direction,  there  is  a  house 
where  Madame  Gachet  lived,  a  woman 
who  had  stolen  a  very  fine  necklace  from 
the  queen  of  your  country.  When  she 
died,  two  big  letters  were  seen  on  her 
back.'"  The  legend,  it  will  be  seen,  is 
very  precise,  and  it  is  diffused  throughout 
the  country. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Baronne  Bod6  in 
her  Memoirs  gives  some  curious  details 
about  the  Countess  Gachet,  n^e  Valois, 
Countess  de  La  Motte,  who  was  settled  in 
the  Crimea  from  1820  to  1830.     *  I  see  her 


LEGENDS  283 

still,'  she  says,  'oldish,  slight  in  figure,  but 
well  made,  dressed  in  a  grey  cloth  overall. 
Her  white  hair  was  covered  with  a  black 
velvet  cap.  She  spoke  a  choice  French, 
with  animation  and  grace.  .  .  .  She  had 
known  Cagliostro,  had  an  inexhaustible 
fund  of  stories  of  the  court  of  Louis  xvi., 
and  gave  me  to  understand  that  there  was 
a  great  mystery  in  her  life. ' 

In  her  will  the  Countess  Cachet  appointed 
the  father  of  Baronne  Bode  her  executor. 
Her  Armenian  servant  related  that  the 
countess,  feeling  ill,  had  spent  the  whole 
night  in  sorting  and  burning  papers.  She 
had  forbidden  her  body  to  be  touched,  and 
ordered  that  she  should  be  buried  just  as 
she  was.  In  laying  out  the  corpse,  the 
old  servant  noticed  on  her  back  two  marks, 
evidently  made  by  red-hot  iron. 

Louis  de  Soudak  paused  in  emotion  before 
the  stone  placed  over  the  lady's  tomb. 
'Accompanied    by   an    Armenian    deacon,' 


284     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

he  writes,  *  I  spent  several  hours  in  wander- 
ing about  the  cemetery,  covered  with  oats 
and  nettles.  I  found  many  very  old  tomb- 
stones buried  under  dead  bodies  interred 
above  them.  The  inscriptions  had  dis- 
appeared. The  frequent  rains  and  the 
sea-winds  blowing  from  Theodosia  had 
effaced  everything.  Thence  I  repaired  to 
the  spot  where  the  cottage  of  the  countess 
stood.  On  the  face  of  a  charming  ravine,  the 
little  peasant's  dwelling  nestled  coquettishly, 
smiling  in  its  bed  of  verdure.  Near  by, 
behind  the  trees,  a  windmill  spread  its  great 
vertebrated  sails  towards  the  blue  sky. 
Flocks  of  geese  screeched  a  hostile  recep- 
tion, while  the  owner,  a  sturdy  Bulgarian, 
seemed  hardly  to  relish  the  inquisitive 
glance  I  threw  over  his  little  domain. 
Returning  by  the  silent  ravine,  at  the 
bottom  of  which  a  brook  flows,  watering 
the  flourishing  kitchen  garden,  I  reflected 
that    the    hapless    exile    must    often    have 


LEGENDS  285 

wandered  in  that  spot,  and  that,  far  from 
France,  her  poor  heart  must  then  have 
suffered  bitter  rancour  and  poignant  re- 
gret.' 

Who  could  the  mysterious  stranger  have 
been  ?  The  field  of  conjecture  is  bound- 
less. Doubtless  she  was  some  unfortunate 
creature  who  had  escaped  from  a  house 
of  detention  during  the  troubles  of  the 
Revolution,  and  had  found  the  opportunity 
to  set  off  the  depths  of  her  degradation  by 
means  of  a  legend. 

After  dying  in  London  in  1791,  and  then 
in  the  Crimea  in  1825,  Madame  de  La  Motte 
died  once  more  in  Paris  in  1844.  Nearly 
all  the  journals  made  themselves  echoes  of 
this  sensational  end.  On  returning  from 
the  emigration,  a  bishop  had  introduced  to 
society,  at  the  house  of  one  of  the  wealthiest 
nobles  of  the  district,  a  mysterious  lady. 
The    marquis    gave    her    a    wing    of    his 


286     CAGLIOSTRO  AND  COMPANY 

mansion,  and  devoted  two  domestics  to  her 
service.  He  granted  her  a  pension.  Before 
his  death,  he  recommended  his  heir  to  con- 
tinue these  favours.  The  unknown  lady 
never  went  out  except  to  go  to  church  and 
to  visit  the  poor.  She  was  infinitely  kind- 
hearted,  and  the  poor  used  to  kiss  her 
hands.  But  she  was  brought,  by  the  very 
people  she  succoured,  into  relations  with 
the  noblest  ladies  of  the  Faubourg  Saint- 
Germain.  She  was  compelled  to  throw 
open  her  drawing-room.  She  was  a  won- 
derful talker,  relating  anecdotes  with  all 
the  grace  of  the  olden  time ;  and  she 
played  at  whist  and  reversi.  It  was  a 
favour  much  sought  after  to  be  admitted  to 
her  circle — to  be  received  by  the  Countess 
Jeanne,  the  only  name  she  bore.  For 
thirty  years  she  went  on  giving  alms,  talk- 
ing, and  playing  reversi.  Then  death  rent 
the  veil.  In  the  dead  lady's  room  they 
found  a  heap  of  half-burnt  papers.     Death 


LEGENDS  287 

had  surprised  her  throwing  the  secret  of 
her  Hfe  to  the  flames.  Amazing  discovery  ! 
the  Countess  Jeanne,  the  holy  and  revered 
saint,  was  Madame  de  La  Motte !  At  any 
rate,  so  declared  all  the  newspapers  of  Paris 
in  the  month  of  May  1844. 


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